While 1858 in London may have been noteworthy for its broiling summer months and the stench of the sewage-filled Thames River, the year is otherwise little remembered. And yet, when Rosemary Ashton mined Victorian letters and gossip, diaries, court records, and newspapers, she uncovered crucial moments in the lives of three of the era's towering figures: Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and Benjamin Disraeli, and introduces others who gained renown in the headlines of the day, among them George Eliot, Karl Marx, and William Thackeray. Looking across the social spectrum, Ashton reveals invisible threads of connection among all Londoners, bringing the city and its citizens vibrantly to life.