This is a wonderfully dark satirical and sardonic novel which eviscerates (literally) high Victorian culture. Having an abiding interest in Victorian and Edwardian culture and the horror genre, this had great appeal. Virginia Feito has a sly sense of humor.
Virginia Feito's Mrs. March was hailed as "a brilliant debut . . . [by] a writer who keeps pace with the grandees she invokes" (Sarah Ditum, Guardian)-from Daphne Du Maurier and Shirley Jackson to Patricia Highsmith. Now, Feito returns with her "silver-polish sentences and her eerie psychological acumen" (Constance Grady, Vox) to unleash an entirely new antihero on us all.
Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess-she'll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate's…
I read this as part of my research into prostitution in the Victorian and Edwardian era for my next book, "The Red Light Districts of Tucson, 1870 - 1917." There are very few first person accounts from prostitutes on this epoch, so this was a must read.
In 1913 the San Francisco Bulletin published a serialized, ghostwritten memoir of a prostitute who went by the moniker Alice Smith. "A Voice from the Underworld" detailed Alice's humble Midwestern upbringing and her struggle to find aboveboard work, and candidly related the harrowing events she endured after entering "the life." While prostitute narratives had been published before, never had they been as frank in their discussion of the underworld, including topics such as abortion, police corruption, and the unwritten laws of the brothel. Throughout the series, Alice strongly criticized the society that failed her and so many other women, but,…
Luke Short is best remembered as a gambler and gunfighter, and a friend of Wyatt Earp. This biography deconstructs the myth which has been built up around the man, and also some myths about the Old West. There was no such thing as gunfighters, just men, like Short, who occasionally had to use a gun. It also gives the reader a good idea of what it was to be a professional gambler during this era.
Luke Short perfected his skills as a gambler in locations that included Leadville, Tombstone, Dodge City, and Fort Worth. In 1883, in what became known as the "Dodge City War," he banded together with Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and others to protect his ownership interests in the Long Branch Saloon - an event commemorated by the famous "Dodge City Peace Commission" photograph.
During his lifetime, Luke Short became one of the best known sporting men in the United States, and one of the wealthiest. The irony is that Luke Short is best remembered for being the winning gunfighter in two…
Long after other parts of Arizona had outlawed prostitution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Tucson maintained its red-light districts, Maiden Lane and Gay Alley. However, amid growing moral and religious backlash, sex workers were among the most marginalized. Many women turned to sex work because of poverty, abandonment, or social scandal, and were further stigmatized by prevailing racial and gender biases. This book is the first comprehensive history of Tucson's red light districts and the women who worked in them. Using a variety of primary sources including court documents, police records, census data, and period newspapers, the author examines the relationship between moral and political movements and the women of the red-light districts themselves, offering a uniquely thorough look at how Tucson's history reflects broader social and cultural dynamics of the American West at the turn of the 20th century.
