Book
Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul
by Karen Abbott
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Paperback
$19.00
" 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 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 City is a masterful history lesson, a harrowing biography, 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 book loudly 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
" 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 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 City is a masterful history lesson, a harrowing biography, 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 book loudly 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
Paperback
$19.00