Women for Hire: Prostitution and Sexuality in France After 1850 - Hardcover

Corbin, A

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674955439 ISBN 13: 9780674955431

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1990

Synopsis

Alain Corbin depicts prostitution in nineteenth-century France not as a vice, crime, or disease, but as a well-organized business. Corbin reveals how the brothel served the sex industry in the same way that the factory served manufacturing: it provided an institution for the efficient and profitable sale of services.

About this title

Review:

A challenging and provocative book which remains the essential study in its field...Corbin amply demonstrates the centrality of prostitution to the social history of modern France.--James F. McMillan "Times Literary Supplement " An engrossing story full of intimate details about the actual lives of women.--Frances Gouda "Women's Review of Books " Majestic, path-breaking...The first systematic investigation of the political and economic aspects of the French sex trade.--Francine du Plessix Gray "New York Review of Books " This is a thorough, fascinating account of the lives of prostitutes, the workings of prostitution as a business and the continuing debates in France over the application of the 'French system' of regulation. This translation from the French "Les filles de noce" is a welcome contribution to the English historiography, providing an excellent source for those working on numerous dimensions of modern French history.--Timothy Baycroft "Modern and Contemporary France [UK] "

About the Author:

Alain Corbin is Professor of History at the Sorbonne. Alan Sheridan's most recent book is Michel Foucault: The Will to Truth. He has also translated over 50 books, including works by Sartre, Lacan, and Foucault.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0674955439
• ISBN 13: 9780674955431
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 512