Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State

This is an excellent book when it is discussing lower class women reactions to dominance by men and Middle Class Victorian attitudes toward the lower classes. The author makes the point that prostitution was often a job of short duration for women who would presumably move on to other things; marriage, working class occupations, domestic help. It gets dull and dissertation like when discussing the doings of the various parties arrayed against each other over the Contagious Disease Act, which sought to regulate venereal disease amongst prostitutes. I wish it could be chopped up in two big sections. In any case, chapters 1, 2, 8, 10 would suffice for the first view. Needless to say, there is no prurient interest in this book of social history on the treatment of lower class women.