'makes an important contribution to ongoing scholarship ... we glean more insight into the often troubling, contradictory attitudes and opinions toward prostitution that continue to this day.' Journal of the History of Sexuality

• Introduction: ‘The Great Social Evil’ – Representing the Victorian Prostitute; Chapter 1 White-Washed Sepulchres and Wives of Englishmen: William Acton’s Representation of English Prostitutes; Chapter 2 From ‘Masses of Rottenness’ to the ‘Queen’s Women’: The Report of the Royal Commission (1871); Chapter 3 Mothers, Sisters and Shameless Women: Josephine Butler and the Victorian Prostitute; Chapter 4 Mercy and Grace: Wilkie Collins and the New Magdalen; Chapter 5 My Secret Life and the Pornographic Representation of Prostitution; conclusion Conclusion: Countering the Myth;