Gustave Dorês unforgettable images of Victorian London portray in stark contrast the affluent world of monumental buildings, horse racing, and scoiety balls against the teeming populace of city streets and the raw poverty of slums, homelessness, and hopelessness. To reinforce Dore's powerful engravings, Coolidge draws skillfully upon the written observations of contemporary European visitors such as Taine, Heine, Gautier and Dostoyevsky.