Beggars, outcasts, urchins, waifs, prostitutes, criminals, convicts, madmen, fallen women, lunatics, degenerates—part reality, part fantasy, these are the grotesque faces that populate the underworld, the dark inverse of our everyday world. Lurking in the mirror that we hold up to our society, they are our counterparts and our doubles, repelling us and yet offering the tantalizing promise of escape. Although these images testify to undeniable social realities, the sordid lower depths make up a symbolic and social imaginary that reflects our fears and anxieties—as well as our desires.

In Vice, Crime, and Poverty, Dominique Kalifa traces the untold history of the concept of the underworld and its representations in popular culture. He examines how the myth of the lower depths came into being in nineteenth-century Europe, as biblical figures and Christian traditions were adapted for a world turned upside-down by the era of industrialization, democratization, and mass culture. From the Parisian demimonde to Victorian squalor, from the slums of New York to the sewers of Buenos Aires, Kalifa deciphers the making of an image that has cast an enduring spell on its audience. While the social conditions that created that underworld have changed, Vice, Crime, and Poverty shows that, from social-scientific ideas of the underclass to contemporary cinema and steampunk culture, its shadows continue to haunt us.

"Kalifa’s research is virtuosic, incorporating every type of source under the sun—poetry, sociology, films, popular songs, literature, journalism—and is endlessly entertaining." - Los Angeles Review of Books

"An expertly drawn picture of a lost myth. . . . This accessible work should find ready use in the classroom and among a wide readership . . . interested in urban history, class, and nineteenth-century culture." - American Historical Review

"A rich book. . . . Kalifa makes the case for the abundant possibilities in study of the social imaginary." - Journal of Social History

"Kalifa extensively catalogs the language, imagery, and discursive forms in which the underworld has been evoked over time." - Journal of Modern History

"In theory, we've left those ideas behind. In practice, the poor, the mentally ill, and those classified as deviant are all still seen too often as a single stigmatized mass, to be cured, saved, policed, condescended to, and enjoyed as lurid entertainment by those who consider themselves their social superiors." - Pacific Standard

"A blurring of any distinction between the place and the population runs throughout the texts Kalifa draws on, which include novels, police memoirs, newspaper articles by undercover reporters and pleas by social reformers." - Inside Higher Ed

"The breadth of insights contained in Vice, Crime, and Poverty is breathtaking. . . . Engaging, methodologically sophisticated, and thought-provoking." - H-France

"Colorfully written, jargon free, and nicely translated, this volume suggests that every generation gets the underworld it needs." - Choice

"Beautiful book, rich of literature, anecdotes, stories. . . . Highly recommended." - Al Femminile