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A review by pili_pala
The Covent Garden Ladies: Pimp General Jack & The Extraordinary Story of Harris' List by Hallie Rubenhold
4.0
This is a great little book. I'd heard of Harris's List from my studies of the period at university, and had read some extracts from it. This book traces the interweaving stories of three of the people involved in its production, and in doing so, introduces a lot of other personalities and explores a lot of the issues.
There are a lot of the usual problems in writing social history of the poor - the relative lack of documentary evidence, and the propensity of people to change their names, does make it hard to piece together people's lives - and sometimes the author is forced to rely on conjecture. None of her conjectures are unreasonable but some are longer reaches than others, especially when it comes to what one or other of the people must have felt.
But these are quibbles. It's an engaging, accessible account, which is sensitively written. It is compassionate to the women (and men) who found themselves drawn - or forced - into prostitution. It acknowledges that for some it was a good career choice, while recognising that for many it was exploitative and horrid. It explores the prevailing gender stereotypes that drove the trade and the attitudes towards prostitutes and their clients, and in a move that made my feminist heart glad, it includes an appendix, listing four pages of names of men who regularly used prostitutes - the men who, as the author points out, have been able evade the scrutiny and judgement heaped on the women who serviced them.
It did strike me how much our sexual 'morality' has changed. We regard the 18th century - especially in terms of high society - as a time of rigid sexual morality compared to our own. Certainly, any breath of impropriety could ruin a woman's reputation - and chance of a decent life - forever. Same sex relationships were illegal and harshly punished. But by modern standards, many of the men on that list - who no doubt felt themselves blameless and were pillars of society - would be regarded as criminals. Many of these girls were children. Many 'seductions' were, in fact, rapes. Many of these 'filles de joie' were no more than indentured slaves. People who condemn modern morality and long for a return to old fashioned values would do well to remember that.
This book is a welcome antidote to the over-romanticisation of the Regency period. I like a Regency romance as much as anyone, but this provides a good companion piece.
There are a lot of the usual problems in writing social history of the poor - the relative lack of documentary evidence, and the propensity of people to change their names, does make it hard to piece together people's lives - and sometimes the author is forced to rely on conjecture. None of her conjectures are unreasonable but some are longer reaches than others, especially when it comes to what one or other of the people must have felt.
But these are quibbles. It's an engaging, accessible account, which is sensitively written. It is compassionate to the women (and men) who found themselves drawn - or forced - into prostitution. It acknowledges that for some it was a good career choice, while recognising that for many it was exploitative and horrid. It explores the prevailing gender stereotypes that drove the trade and the attitudes towards prostitutes and their clients, and in a move that made my feminist heart glad, it includes an appendix, listing four pages of names of men who regularly used prostitutes - the men who, as the author points out, have been able evade the scrutiny and judgement heaped on the women who serviced them.
It did strike me how much our sexual 'morality' has changed. We regard the 18th century - especially in terms of high society - as a time of rigid sexual morality compared to our own. Certainly, any breath of impropriety could ruin a woman's reputation - and chance of a decent life - forever. Same sex relationships were illegal and harshly punished. But by modern standards, many of the men on that list - who no doubt felt themselves blameless and were pillars of society - would be regarded as criminals. Many of these girls were children. Many 'seductions' were, in fact, rapes. Many of these 'filles de joie' were no more than indentured slaves. People who condemn modern morality and long for a return to old fashioned values would do well to remember that.
This book is a welcome antidote to the over-romanticisation of the Regency period. I like a Regency romance as much as anyone, but this provides a good companion piece.