Madeleine

by Marcia Carlisle, Benjamin Barr Lindsey

An insider's eloquent, moving account of life as a nineteenth century prostitute. This memoir offers a vivid account of brothel life in 1890s North Americain the city (Chicago, St. Louis), the Western boom town (Butte, Montana), and on the Canadian frontier. Containing the introductions to the 1919 and 1986 editions (by Judge Ben B. Lindsey and scholar Marcia Carlisle, respectively), its eponymous narrator offers great insight into the daily workings of both "high" and "low" class houses, as well as her relationships with madams, clientele, and members of the "legitimate" society in which prostitution flourished.

Genres: Memoir

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in one day.. could not put it down. This book puts you through all of the emotions, you get angry every time she has a chance to get out and goes back; sad when her son dies; heartbroken when her lover gets engaged to another; and so e of the conditions the other women were subjected too; surprised at the ending when she finds God. She angered me so many times when she had a chance to go to school and get out of the profession.

[Karen Charbonneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can get this as a free download if you do a search. This memoir was so controversial when it was published in 1919, the president of Harper & Brothers publishing company, Clinton Tyler Brainard,was arrested for printing the book, not because of graphic sexual details in the book, but because the author showed no remorse for her life of sin. He refused to give the author's real name and was fined $1,000.00. He won on appeal.
Madeleine describes in great detail her life asof a prostitute. She didn't enjoy it, but it was better than starving to death in the 1890s. It was her pregnancies that caused her the most grief, and the loss of her 4-year old son from pneumonia. She coped marginally well, except for a gambling addiction, until she, herself, became a madam up in Alberta. Then the stress of running a difficult business and dealing with her girls; and the conflicting interests of the Mounties on one hand and the town fathers on the other,(an issue any business person can identify with) caused insomnia, which she medicated with alcohol. She doesn't mince words about her personal spiral downward. At the end she briefly recounts her seeking God's grace through a priest (an embodiment of the later AA)to stop drinking and abandon her way of life, which had become the source of her alcoholism. Oddly, she never mentions drug addiction to opiates by any prostitutes she knew.
It's very well-written and well-edited. No elusive Victorian verbiage -- a modern book. Highly recommended.