Fiction
January 1, 1
Mark Caldwell
New York’s Civil War– era underworlds aren’t what they used to be. Denounced in their own time by antivice crusaders as being so immoral that decency forbade even vague description, they’ve resurfaced with a vengeance in a remarkable succession of recent books that prowl in minute detail through the inventive urban libertinism of the 1850s and beyond. From these accounts, we know where the brothels were, who ran them, and how a typical evening progressed, from the parlor entertainment to the habits of the madams, johns, and sex workers (male and female) to the houses’ very plumbing. We know about the