Product Description

Home to the notorious "Blue Book," which listed the names and addresses of every prostitute living in the city, New Orleans's infamous red-light district gained a reputation as one of the most raucous in the world. But the New Orleans underworld consisted of much more than the local bordellos. It was also well known as the early gambling capital of the United States, and sported one of the most violent records of street crime in the country. In The French Quarter, Herbert Asbury, author of The Gangs of New York, chronicles this rather immense underbelly of "The Big Easy." From the murderous exploits of Mary Jane "Bricktop" Jackson and Bridget Fury, two prostitutes who became famous after murdering a number of their associates, to the faux-revolutionary "filibusters" who, backed by hundreds of thousands of dollars of public support-though without official governmental approval-undertook military missions to take over the bordering Spanish regions in Texas, the French Quarter had it all. Once again, Asbury takes the reader on an intriguing, photograph-filled journey through a unique version of the American underworld.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31958 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Review
"For any true-crime collection." -- Library Journal, July 2003

Customer Reviews

Wonderful-With Caveats
This book stops at 1917 with the closing of Storyville, and was first published in 1938. If at all possible, buy a good original printing. The trade paperback now out has poor, small reproductions of the original illustrations. This is a wonderful, engaging, laugh-out-loud book to be read time and time again. However, it has some factual errors. Asbury implies that Storyville was in the French Quarter-it was not. He also repeats verbatim some "legends" that were invented long after the fact. If you want a correct history of Storyville, see Al Rose's book.

I Loved This Book
I am so happy this book is being reprinted! I had a copy some years back and howled with laughter at the antics of some the the Quarter's historic gangs, crooks, and ne'er-do-wells. If you are planning your first trip to New Orlean's, this book is a must read, or if you just want to sit back and have a good time and be tickled by some truly amazing characters (like Bricktop) and their pecadillos, buy this book.

A daring book of its day
Herbert Asbury must have been the daring writer of his day, daring to approach topics such as the red light district of New Orleans and the flesh trade in books that have retained a cult following to this day. In somewhat florrid prose, he manages to present a fairly accurate history of the French Quarter, its denizens, and chatacters, includong voodoo queens and madams and the social climates that shaped it. It portrays the politics and characters, the scoundrals and the thiefs. The book is as much a part of the era in which it was written, although New Orleans is a bit removed from the social climes of the rest of the country. It is a facinating portrait of a n era and a place that is a delight to visit for a time.