Monday, May 06, 2013

A 1793 review of a Jewish prostitute in London

This account of a Jewish prostitute in London is from the 1793 edition Harris's List of Covent-Garden Ladies: Or, Man of Pleasure's Kalendar, the notorious guidebook giving addresses and reviews of the London, err, nightlife. 




4 comments:

  1. Reminded me of this: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/on-the-records-a-well-preserved-roadmap-to-perdition/

    ReplyDelete
  2. And even more to the point, nebach, see here:
    http://forward.com/articles/3054/pickpockets-players-prostitutes-ee-jews/#ixzz2SaWEo9AA
    Best quote: "If a woman called out to you as you walked down Allen Street,” Judge Jonah J. Goldstein declared, referring to one of the Lower East Side’s major thoroughfares, “you knew she wasn’t calling you to a minyan.”

    See also the posting and comments here:
    http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2012/10/have-you-seen-that-jewess.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. The nudgenudgewinkwink'ism at the beginning (we don't know how maqpid this frisky Israelitishal lass is in her renunciation of the flesh of the swine, yukyukyuk) would be annoying in any case and with any woman, but in combination with the part at the end about her being an orthodox Christian, it sort of makes me go "Wha?"!
    Telling, I guess, that he doesn't do any obnoxious whateverisms about how frum a Christian she is. Actually, it isn't telling. There's nothing really anti-Semitic, I don't think, about the beginning. It's more all-purpose leering.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Considering how descriptive they are about some of the other women; for good or for ill, she got off pretty easy.

    ReplyDelete

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