GIFTING PAIN: THE PLEASURES OF LIBERAL GUILT INLONDON, A PILGRIMAGEANDSTREET LIFE IN LONDON

In 1872, Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Dorébegan publishing their lavish travelogue,London, a Pilgrimage. Much renowned for his illustrations ofDivine Comedy,Don Quixote,Paradise Lost,Idylls of the King, and other significant literary texts, Doré's considerable reputation as an artist fetched him a staggering sum of ten thousand pounds as payment for his work inLondon, a Pilgrimage. Jerrold, responsible for conceptualizing the project, was an established liberal playwright and journalist, often contributing pieces to theDaily News,Illustrated London News, andAthenaeum.Looking for interesting material, Jerrold and Doré traveled all over London; Doré often made notes on the spot and finished the illustrations later. Seeking to situate their work within the field of social exploration, Jerrold and Doré referenced Henry Mayhew's reformist journalistic series,London Labour and the London Poor. Jerrold claimed that their social investigation would reproduce for contemporary readers Mayhew's categories of “those who work, those who cannot, [and] those who won't work” (“Frontmatter”). Volumes ofLondon, a Pilgrimage, however, were reviewed as gift-books in various periodicals; theExaminer, for example, reviewed it in the “Christmas-Books” section, indicating that these volumes, which contained pictures of lower-class shanties and miserable, under-fed people, were being gifted and enjoyed (“Christmas-Books”).