xii, 191, [11] pp. With text illustrations by Dore throughout. (Folio) 42x31 cm (16x12"), period three quarter morocco and cloth, gilt decorated spine, marbled endpaper, all edges gilt.

The book was conceived in 1868 by Jerrold, an experienced journalist; author and artist prowled every corner of the metropolis, sometimes accompanied by plainclothes police. This copy lacking the full page plates, but includes the wonderful text illustrations throughout.

“The theme of this book had been anticipated by Matthew Arnold three years earlier when he wrote of ‘London, with its unutterable external hideousness, and with its internal canker of publicé egestas, privatim opulentia - to use the words which Sallust puts into Cato’s mouth about Rome, -unequaled in the world’ (Culture and Anarchy, London, 1869, p. 31). "Doré’s devastating realization of the contrast of wealth and poverty in a modern metropolis makes London one of the great illustrated books of the world.” - Ray. “If one book depicts Dickens’ London in all its glory and especially misery, this is it; and it is hard to cite another book of any period which so perfectly defines a time and place in history as this book does.” Bland, A History of Book Illustration, pp. 289-90.