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hawkwing_lbBooks 2010: 137-138
137. Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation.
Another brilliant Aubrey and Maturin novel. Only six remain for my enjoyment: I'll have to be careful about reading them slowly.
nonfiction
138. Dan Cruickshank, The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital. Windmill, London, 2009.
This is a massive, fascinating, extraordinarily readable social history of prostitution in Georgian London. One word for it is magisterial: Cruickshank occasionally lets his fondness for architectural history run away with him, but for the most part it remains solidly grounded in its human characters, and - for a work dealing with this topic - remarkably generous towards all of them, from streetwalkers to courtesans of the highest class, pimps and madams and bullies, to the artists, magistrates, and political animals with whom they interacted.
It's divided into four "Acts" which in their respective chapters deal with four different primary themes in the sexual life of the city, a prologue dealing with William Hogarth's Harlot's Progress, and three brief Appendices on the London mob, women who lived as men, and the interesting entrepreneur Dr. James Graham. The whole arrangement is broadly, though not particularly, chronological, and while it assumes a little familiarity with the major figures and political developments of the period, in a volume of not less than six hundred pages it could hardly do otherwise.
I enjoyed it sufficiently well to stay up past any reasonable bed-time last night reading it, so I believe whole-hearted recommendation is in order.
(No, it has nothing whatsoever to do with anything I'm supposed to be doing. But it is most fascinating.)
137. Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation.
Another brilliant Aubrey and Maturin novel. Only six remain for my enjoyment: I'll have to be careful about reading them slowly.
nonfiction
138. Dan Cruickshank, The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital. Windmill, London, 2009.
This is a massive, fascinating, extraordinarily readable social history of prostitution in Georgian London. One word for it is magisterial: Cruickshank occasionally lets his fondness for architectural history run away with him, but for the most part it remains solidly grounded in its human characters, and - for a work dealing with this topic - remarkably generous towards all of them, from streetwalkers to courtesans of the highest class, pimps and madams and bullies, to the artists, magistrates, and political animals with whom they interacted.
It's divided into four "Acts" which in their respective chapters deal with four different primary themes in the sexual life of the city, a prologue dealing with William Hogarth's Harlot's Progress, and three brief Appendices on the London mob, women who lived as men, and the interesting entrepreneur Dr. James Graham. The whole arrangement is broadly, though not particularly, chronological, and while it assumes a little familiarity with the major figures and political developments of the period, in a volume of not less than six hundred pages it could hardly do otherwise.
I enjoyed it sufficiently well to stay up past any reasonable bed-time last night reading it, so I believe whole-hearted recommendation is in order.
(No, it has nothing whatsoever to do with anything I'm supposed to be doing. But it is most fascinating.)
