Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul | 
 enlarge | Author: Karen Abbott
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $5.00
You Save: $10.00 (67%)
New (37) Used (41) from $5.00
Rating:  95 reviews
Sales Rank: 7464
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1
ISBN: 0812975995
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.74097731109041
EAN: 9780812975994
ASIN: 0812975995
Publication Date: June 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Excl. cond. See my feedback for quality and reliability. (pb)
| |
| Also Available In:
| • | Hardcover - Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul | | • | Audio CD - Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul | | • | Kindle Edition - Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul | | • | Audio Download - Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul (Unabridged) | | • | MP3 CD - Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul | | • | Audio CD - Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history–and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago’s notorious Levee district at the dawn of the last century, the Club’s proprietors, two aristocratic sisters named Minna and Ada Everleigh, welcomed moguls and actors, senators and athletes, foreign dignitaries and literary icons, into their stately double mansion, where thirty stunning Everleigh “butterflies” awaited their arrival. Courtesans named Doll, Suzy Poon Tang, and Brick Top devoured raw meat to the delight of Prince Henry of Prussia and recited poetry for Theodore Dreiser. Whereas lesser madams pocketed most of a harlot’s earnings and kept a “whipper” on staff to mete out discipline, the Everleighs made sure their girls dined on gourmet food, were examined by an honest physician, and even tutored in the literature of Balzac.
Not everyone appreciated the sisters’ attempts to elevate the industry. Rival Levee madams hatched numerous schemes to ruin the Everleighs, including an attempt to frame them for the death of department store heir Marshall Field, Jr. But the sisters’ most daunting foes were the Progressive Era reformers, who sent the entire country into a frenzy with lurid tales of “white slavery”——the allegedly rampant practice of kidnapping young girls and forcing them into brothels. This furor shaped America’s sexual culture and had repercussions all the way to the White House, including the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
With a cast of characters that includes Jack Johnson, John Barrymore, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., William Howard Taft, “Hinky Dink” Kenna, and Al Capone, Sin in the Second City is Karen Abbott’s colorful, nuanced portrait of the iconic Everleigh sisters, their world-famous Club, and the perennial clash between our nation’s hedonistic impulses and Puritanical roots. Culminating in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers, Sin in the Second City offers a vivid snapshot of America’s journey from Victorian-era propriety to twentieth-century modernity.
Visit www.sininthesecondcity.com to learn more!
“Delicious… Abbott describes the Levee’s characters in such detail that it’s easy to mistake this meticulously researched history for literary fiction.” —— New York Times Book Review
“ Described with scrupulous concern for historical accuracy…an immensely readable book.”
—— Joseph Epstein, The Wall Street Journal
“Assiduously researched… even this book’s minutiae makes for good storytelling.”
—— Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“Karen Abbott has pioneered sizzle history in this satisfyingly lurid tale. Change the hemlines, add 100 years, and the book could be filed under current affairs.” —— USA Today
“A rousingly racy yarn.” –Chicago Tribune
“A colorful history of old Chicago that reads like a novel… a compelling and eloquent story.” —— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Gorgeously detailed” —— New York Daily News
“At last, a history book you can bring to the beach.” —— The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Once upon a time, Chicago had a world class bordello called The Everleigh Club. Author Karen Abbott brings the opulent place and its raunchy era alive in a book that just might become this years “The Devil In the White City.” —— Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine (cover story)
“As Abbott’s delicious and exhaustively researched book makes vividly clear, the Everleigh Club was the Taj Mahal of bordellos.” —— Chicago Sun Times
“The book is rich with details about a fast-and-loose Chicago of the early 20th century… Sin explores this world with gusto, throwing light on a booming city and exposing its shadows.”
—— Time Out Chicago
“[Abbott’s] research enables the kind of vivid description a la fellow journalist Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City that make what could be a dry historic account an intriguing read."
– Seattle Times
“Abbott tells her story with just the right mix of relish and restraint, providing a piquant guide to a world of sexuality” —— The Atlantic
“A rollicking tale from a more vibrant time: history to a ragtime beat.”
– Kirkus Reviews
“With gleaming prose and authoritative knowledge Abbott elucidates one of the most colorful periods in American history, and the result reads like the very best fiction. Sex, opulence, murder — What's not to love?”
—— Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants
“A detailed and intimate portrait of the Ritz of brothels, the famed Everleigh Club of turn-of-the-century Chicago. Sisters Minna and Ada attracted the elites of the world to such glamorous chambers as the Room of 1,000 Mirrors, complete with a reflective floor. And isn’t Minna’s advice to her resident prostitutes worthy advice for us all: “Give, but give interestingly and with mystery.”’
—— Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City
“Karen Abbott has combined bodice-ripping salaciousness with top-notch scholarship to produce a work more vivid than a Hollywood movie.”
—— Melissa Fay Greene, author of There is No Me Without You
“Sin in the Second Cityis a masterful history lesson, a harrowingbiography, and - best of all - a superfun read. The Everleigh story closely follows the turns of American history like a little sister. I can't recommend this bookloudly enough.”
—— Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng
“This is a story of debauchery and corruption, but it is also a story of sisterhood, and unerring devotion. Meticulously researched, and beautifully crafted, Sin in the Second City is an utterly captivating piece of history.”
—— Julian Rubinstein, author of Ballad of the Whiskey Robber
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 90 more reviews...
 A Good Historical Novel January 3, 2009
About a year ago I came upon the turn of the century crime novel. Since then I have read a number of books and most have been quite good. This book was amongst the mid tier books (I would have rated in 3.5 stars if possible. My slight issues with this book has nothing to do with the writing. In fact I felt Abbott does an excellent job presenting turn of the century Chicago and capturing the feel of the city.
I think my issue with the book is the main characters do not seem to be interesting enough to fill all the pages. Perhaps the Everleighs were not as interesting as initially hoped by the author. I felt that despite the detailed descriptions of the time there was a missed opportunity to look at the Vice District in a broader sense and delve a bit deeper into the multitude of other interesting characters that Abbott introduces and litters throughout the book.
If she had written a bit more about some of these unsavory individuals perhaps it would have been more fulfilling for me as a reader. Or maybe the topic just didn't do it for me. She does share quite a bit on the history of white slavery which I found very interesting.
While this didn't win me over, if you are interested in brothels, Chicago at the turn of the century, and the Everleigh sisters this book will not disappoint. Additionally, the novel will introduce you to many characters you could follow through other novels and certainly presents interesting insight but again I couldn't help but feel that there was something missing.
I would recommend Erik Larson's novels first (perhaps his decision to intertwine multiple stories is something necessary when a main character cannot fill up the pages of an entire book) and then move on to this book. If you a reader of turn of the century crime novels and haven't read this yet you will definitely enjoy it but if you haven't read any yet there are a few others such as Devil in the White City and Satan's Circus which I would recommend first.
 Informative as well as entertaining December 30, 2008
Abbott takes you back in time and tells the story of the Everleigh sisters and weaves it into the history of the Levee in the early 1900's. She gives vivid descriptions of all of the characters and circumstances making you feel like you are a fly on the wall. This is a well researched, non-fiction book that is fun to read. Sometimes the stories in history are the best stories of all!
Sin in the Second City Review December 23, 2008
I recently read Sin in the Second City for my college history class. When my history professor first suggested I read this book, I was a bit skeptical, but as soon as I started reading it, I could not put it down. I even skipped a class or two because I was reading (shh..). It just proves that one cannot judge a book by its cover or title. I REALLY enjoyed this book. It's refreshing to find a historical account written in such a way that makes the reader want to see what's on the next page instead of fall asleep. The way Karen Abbott describes the Everleigh sisters and their club makes the reader really feel like they are there experiencing all the events and emotions of the time. It really is very hard to make history interesting because a lot of people do not care about history the way we should, but Karen Abbott made me want to learn more about America's history. I am looking forward to reading what she writes in the future.
Skipping thru time November 15, 2008
As fascinating as the stories are, and as meticulous as the research appears to be, the structure of the narrative was frustrating. The chapters jump around and one loses all sense of chronology. I wish the book was better organized. I really wanted to like it more.
History lesson + page turning tale of scandal, devotion and two sisters way ahead of their time November 15, 2008
"Well behaved women rarely make history" - if that's the case, the famed Everleigh sisters might as well be the spokeswomen for the concept. These classy and conniving sisters revamped the lucrative brothel industry of the early1900's Chicago (well, the entire nation to be more precise). A little history, a little fiction and a lot of time travel - this story takes you back to a lavish smoky parlor filled with characters as opulent as the decor. I devoured it in days that felt like minutes.
|
|
|
