The Georgian Bawdyhouse

(Paperback)

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A revealing, frank and sometimes lighthearted illustrated history of British brothels in the eighteenth century.

The business of sex was a significant aspect of urban culture in Georgian England, and a visible one. Despite the rise of the 'polite society' of Jane Austen's novels, England was also at the time rife with vice and debauchery: in the shadows of the fashionable public parks and gardens, in alleyways and taverns, even at church doors, there lurked a world of criminality and prostitution of which the bawdyhouse became one of the most potent symbols. This book explores what is was like to run, work in, and frequent these establishments, which ranged from filthy hovels and country inns to grand townhouse apartments, and draws from newspaper reports, criminal trials, political debate and bawdy pamphlets and prints to show both the frivolity and the harsh realities of the Georgian brothel.

Author Bio

Emily Brand is a writer and historian with a special interest in eighteenthand nineteenth-century England. She has written widely on domestic and family life for a number of history and genealogy magazines and is also an author for the history society London Historians, of which she is an honorary member. She wrote 'Royal Weddings' for Shire.