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CRUICKSHANK**, DAN: : THE SECRET HISTORY OF GEORGIAN LONDON: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital

LONDON.RANDOM HOUSE BOOKS,2009.

ISBN 9781847945372.

UK,thick 8vo HB+protected,cellophane-sleeved dw/dj,1st edn. [Complete number line 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1.] FINE/FINE. No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Although an ex-public library copy the only extant evidence of it's prior state are faint outline impression of removed adhesive library label to foot of spine/ backstrip of the cellophane-sleeved and protected dw/dj,edge outlines of removal of security tag+adhesive library label on title page - but no other library or alpha -numerical notation observed or noted.Bright,crisp,clean, black background with bright crisp,gilt decorated 'keyhole' device with portrait detail from 'Cupid Unfastening the Girdle of Venus', 1788 (oil on canvas) by Sir Joshua Reynolds, pictorial illustrated front of dw/dj with embossed white+gilt lettering to front,similar coloured,but flat printed letters and thumbnail repeated keyhole illustration to spine/backstrip,rear panel with contemporary b/w engraving illustration (Beer Street,1751),by William Hogarth; with negligible shelf-wear to edges and corners – no nicks,tears or splits present.Top+fore-edges lightly aged/toned but bright and clean without other blemish; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound – no dog-ear reading creases to any pages’ corner tips – near pristine - appears unread apart from my own collation.Publisher’s bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,original,plain black paper-covered boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt lettered spine/backstrip and clean plain black endpapers. Gentle pushing both head+foot of spine/backstrip - foot with small creases.UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj, 1st edn,v-xvpp+1-654pp [paginated] includes contents list/table,author's separate preface+ introduction,a prologue,Acts 1-4 comprising 6,5,4 and 3 chapters and Interludes each respectively,16pp contemporary colour facsimile reproduction illustrations and modern colour photographs,in 2 blocks of 8pp apiece between pp238/9 and pp398/9 respectively,profuse contemporary b/w facsimile illusration reproductions interspersed throughout the text and the book,Appendices (3),Notes,a bibliography,an index,picture acknowledgements; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,and a double-page b/w city map environs with Covent Garden Piazza area inset,based on John Rocque's 1746 map,as last pages between the Introduction and Prologue. Georgian London evokes images of elegant buildings and fine art,but it was also a city where prostitution was rife and many tens of thousands of people were dependent in some way or other on the wages of sin. The sex industry was,in fact,a very powerful force indeed,and in 'The Secret History of Georgian London',Dan Cruickshank compellingly shows how the wealth it generated came to affect almost every aspect of life and culture in the capital. His approach is an ambitiously wide-ranging one.He examines the nature of the sex trade and the sort of people who became involved in it.He looks at the ways in which it shaped the building of Georgian London,from the smart new streets that sprang up in Marylebone to the squalid alleys around Charing Cross,and from the coffee houses where many prostitutes operated to the popular bath houses,or bagnios.He examines the impact of prostitution on the arts and,in particular,on such artists as William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds.And he discusses the very varied attitudes of contemporaries - those who sympathised (the writer Richard Steele,for example),those who indulged (including the notorious Sir Francis Dashwood),and those who condemned (not least Samuel Johnson). Finally,he draws on memoir,newspaper accounts and court records to give us vivid portraits of some of the women who became involved in the world of prostitution.The vivacious Sally Salisbury,for example - imprisoned for stabbing he lover in a drug-induced fit of anger; and the prostitute-cum-actress Lavinia Fenton,who made her mark in 'The Beggar's Opera' and who eventually married a duke.As Dan Cruickshank powerfully argues,these women,and many thousands like them,shaped 18thC London,and they also helped determine the city's future development. In many ways the history of London's sex industry is the history of Georgian London's poor and outcast communities.It is also,to a degree,a history of crime in the capital because the sex industry was the common link between all aspects of London life: the familiar path to perdition in this world and the next: the portal between high living and fashion,and low life and crime.This story reveals that Georgian London, although vigorous and visually beautiful,was also a very savahe place at times,far removed from the imagined world of grace and elegance.It was a city where,from time to time, homosexuals were hunted down and hanged, infamous women were stoned to death while pinioned in the pillory, prematurely brutalised child prostitutes thronged the main thoroghfares,and where the mob could indulge in uncontrollable acts of violence and mutilation. Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **

UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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