George Ellington. The Women of New York or The Under-World of the Great City.New York: The New York Book Company, 1869.
As its subtitle suggests – “Women of Fashion, Women of Pleasure, Actresses and Ballet Girls, Saloon Girls, Pickpockets and Shoplifters, Artists’ Female Models, Women-of-the-Town, etc., etc., etc.” – this work captures not only the growing presence of prostitutes outside the brothels but also the ambiguity of Victorian sensibilities. However demeaning, prostitution could be a luxurious and lucrative line of work “within the glittering palaces of crime.” The author decries the profession and the deleterious effects on its practitioners. Yet the book also features images of handsome women wearing the latest fashions, lengthy descriptions of their luxurious living quarters, and chronicles of their evenings spent eating in fine dining establishments and going to the theater.
