I have an affinity towards the later years of the 1800s and the early 1900s. This was a remarkable time in history when everything seemed to be shifting - rights of citizens, morality, technology. What a fascinating time it would have been to be alive. Beyond my taste for this time period, I was drawn to this book because of its subject matter, appealing both to my prurient and my historical interests.

Abbott has done a great deal of research and uses ample direct quotes taken from primary and secondary documents, resulting in a smooth piece of nonfiction that often reads like a novel. Although she may take liberties with the thoughts and motivations of those involved, I would argue that she likely hits close to the mark. As the story of Chicago's underworld mechanics unfolds, so does an intriguing and animated cast of characters.

The main focus of the story is on the Everleigh sisters, chronicling the circumstances of their entrance into Chicago's brothel industry and their mysteriously mutable history before they arrived. The Everleighs owned the most prestigious and opulent brothel in Chicago, unsurpassed and envied by all others, and they masterfully navigated amongst social circles of criminals, prostitutes, brothel owners, politicians, businessmen and ministers.

The Everleighs walked the line between propriety and bawdiness, but so did the whole city. Politicians, businessmen, citizens, and preachers vied to steer the community in the direction of their desires. At one time, brothels could operate relatively openly by paying the right people and staying on their side of the proverbial tracks. As ministers gained more influence and society began to look more negatively on prostitution, brothel owners began to feel a minor pinch. Reports of a white slave trade in young women brought further negative attention upon the trade, resulting in government level action to close down these businesses. I like to imagine what a different place Chicago was one hundred years ago - boundaries unestablished, morals questioned, life wilder.

This is a wonderfully readable book about prostitution in turn-of-the century Chicago. The author relates her tale mischievously, telling it in tandem with the life story of Minna and Ada Simms, sisters who ran the most exclusive, high-toned brothel of the time. The story takes in a wide range of topical issues, including progressive politics, prohibition, the women's movement, changing cultural norms, and organized crime. The style is teasing and serious, and the cast of characters colorful in the extreme. This is popular history at its best. ( )

Sin in the Second City is close-up view of Chicago's red-light district in the early 1900s. Non-fiction, but reads like a novel. Abbott glamorizes the Everleigh Club madams and their harlots while painting the reformers with a less forgiving brush. They often come across as prudes and hysterics in comparison to the broad-minded Everleighs.GB Book Club selection for November 2008.The book has a fancy schmancy web site. ( )

This started out REALLY well, but then kind of fizzled towards the end. It was a very interesting glimpse into the history of Chicago's seedier side... ( )

Starts out promising, and quite interesting... but ends up too long, full of too many details, and a tad too boring. ( )

The first 3rd of this book was something I could not put down with the entertaining, yet historically factual, story of the Everleigh sisters. The second 3rd of this book started to slow down almost to a point of 'alright already- I get it this is more than just a story it's really important to the history of Chicago, the white-slave trade, the purity movement, and the corruption of their police and gov't. systems". Okay, it wasn't that bad, but I really missed the story of the sisters. The last 3rd of story started to pick back up as we saw what this meant to all involved. ( )

This should have been a great book, what with the whores, sex, money, and prostitution....right?! I was hoping for a similar read to Devil in the White City, but this book read like a pure textbook. It was dry, dull, and boring for the most part. A bit of a disappointment. ( )

Minna and Ada Everleigh operated one of the most successful and well known brothels in Chicago from 1900-1911. Their success stemmed from their insistence on treating the women who worked for them as ladies complete with couture gowns, large salaries, sumptuous meals and an exclusive clientele. In order to be an Everleigh butterfly as they were nicknamed, you had to be extensively interviewed and provide proof that you were of the age of consent. If you passed the rigorous screening process, you were then schooled on the art of being a lady, proper etiquette and on the ways to please a man . The Everleigh club would play host to many famous dignitaries including John Barrymore, Jack Johnson, Theodore Dreiser, Marshall Field Jr. and Prince Heinrich of Prussia. What was it about this brothel that made it stand above all the others in the district?

According to the author, the vice district of Chicago's south side was prior to the sisters arrival a place that offered little dignity for the women who exchanged their wares for monetary compensation. Most of the houses of ill repute treated the women who worked within with little regard and did not screen their clients, letting anyone who could pay gain entrance. The women were subjected to whippings for any perceived bad behavior and many a customer lost their belongings after they had been drugged by a woman who was supposed to be entertaining them. It was a lawless atmosphere rife with enormous danger.

Into this chaos stepped the Everleigh sisters who sought to reform vice and make it more respectable. The sisters acquired a property from its former madam, dismissed all the women currently working there and began to change the face of prostitution in Chicago. They made it clear from the start that theirs would not be a club into which any drunk sailor would stumble and be entertained. The Everleigh Club they insisted would be one that required an introduction by influential and well trusted friends in order to gain admittance. They applied the well oiled economic principle that by making something exclusive, you attract more business because everyone wants to see what the fuss is all about. Apparently, to have made it into the Everleigh club left you with a sense that you were special. The sisters spared no expense in building their dream brothel, from the beautiful women to the grand piano to the dinner hall that flowed with mounds of food, mirrored ceilings, thirty expensively furnished boudoirs, etc, etc, etc. Indeed, the sisters changed the face of the flesh trade.

As expected the sisters made some enemies of the old madams who had ruled the vice district before their arrival. Notable amongst their enemies was Vic Shaw who had an iron grip before their arrival. She was incensed at these upstarts who muscled in on her territory and she never ceased planning ways to bring about their downfall. But the Everleigh sisters enemies were not limited to the other madams. They also had to contend with the religious reformers who sought to close down all the brothels for what they saw as their role in the spread of sin. Prominent amongst the reformers was Rev. Ernest Bell who maintained a nightly vigil outside the Everleigh club calling on all who could hear to repent of the sins of the flesh.

The sisters thrived for eleven very prosperous years but would eventually fall victim to the wind of change that would sweep the city. The reformers and dedicated law men would eventually pressure the mayor to institute a crack down on the vice district. The sisters would not escape this time as they had done on previous occasions. This time they were forced to close down and begin their lives no longer as madams but as private citizens far from the trade that had made them famous.

I listened to this as an audiobook and I personally found it to be extremely entertaining. The characters were explored in depth and you couldn't wait to see what was coming next. With a cast that included characters with names like "Hinky Dink" Kenna, "Bathhouse" John and cursory mentions of the young gangster Al Capone, I knew I was in for an interesting ride. The narrator Joyce Bean is a good and engaging reader who draws one into the story quite easily. But as enjoyable as one may find the book, one must somewhat doubt the accuracy of the tale. On many occasions the author makes assertions to or alludes to conversations that unless she was standing right there when they happened it would have been impossible for her to have known that one of the speakers furrowed their brow, or pursed her lips or wondered about so and so. The author did this frequently enough for one to doubt or discount some of the things she claimed occurred. If one is writing non fiction then the matter should be treated as such and flowering the prose with one's imagination should be avoided. Unless the author is able to provide factual proof for many of these assertions, one is left to conclude that she took certain aspects of the characters' lives and dramatized and directed it to suit her story. This is too bad as the story of vice in Chicago in the 1900s and beyond was interesting enough without any need for flights of fancy. But all in all, it was a most entertaining read. ( )

There are two fine lines that Abbott had to navigate when writing Sin in the Second City, a historical account of the Everleigh Club, the fanciest and most infamous brothel in Chicago at the turn of the century.

The first line is between two moral positions.

Abbott has two heroines here: Minna and Ada Everleigh, the jewel-encrusted madams who elevated their little corner of the vice district beyond the dirty dance hall and onto a level of elegance and sophistication that attracted millionaire visitors and international attention. Minna and Ada are characters that the author clearly loves. As we follow their story from a mysterious lowly past to their glorious position as quiet, powerful queens of vice in a vicious city, we are invited to fall in love with them as well. There are pimps and madams that we can scorn, lesser characters who live down the street from the Everleighs, who run shitty dives and beat their girls, drug their customers and stick to their own floors. But the Everleighs are a different breed: smart, ethical, pure.

If the Everleighs are the heroes, then the villains must be the reformers, the demonstrators and politicians who were trying to eliminate the vice district and "save" the girls who had "fallen" there as prostitutes. Among the characters on this team are pastors and evangelists, pious ladies, and also city officials trying to look good and crack down on crime. The problem with villainizing this side of the fight is that they actually did have a point. The danger with making a madam your hero is that there actually was a lot of horrifying stuff going on in these houses, stuff you don't want to cheer for, and can't fall in love with.

So, as a writer, do you position yourself with the madams, and giggle and titter your way through the book, pretending it's all so naughty and wry, and those stuffy old reformers are just party poopers? Or do you position yourself with the reformers, and spend the book pushing out that really new and interesting concept that prostitution is bad? Maybe there's a third solution, to just report what happened, be historically accurate, and educate us all so we can make... oh, wait, I just fell asleep while suggesting that as an option. So, none of those are books that I would want to read.

Fortunately, Abbott is smart. Very smart. And her smart book can present all these possibilities simultaneously. This is not an expose of the horrors of segregated vice in turn of the century Chicago. Nor is this a blushing homage to all those fabulous madams and the sexual excesses of the times. No one is exempt from criticism here. Abbott tells the stories of those vainglorious preachers and the hypocritical politicians, but also shines an unforgiving fluorescent light into the depths of vice: the strip-and-whip fights where girls lashed each other bloody for an audience, the girl's palm rotting from syphilis while still performing its handjob, the lies, the greed, the corruption, and all of it.

No one is exempt, that is, except the Everleighs themselves. In understanding this, I began to understand where the moral compass of the book truly points. I believe that Abbott would say that the sins of the vice district were black enough -- the sins of the white slavers and the opium dealers and the lower madams operating their 50 cent dives. The Everleighs, however, weren't doing anything very wrong, and in shutting down their clean, sophisticated, elegant club, where the men were treated fairly and the girls lined up to get a job, where the health and well being of the harlots was a priority and the customers were treated like customers, not sinners, the authorities threw the baby out with the bathwater. That is, I think, the way the book gets out of its predicament.

This moral subtlety allows the book to transcend that "choice" between the whores and the reformers, and allows the story of the characters to flourish without the weight of a judgment or the tension of the absence of judgment.

The second line that Abbott dances down is a literary one. She is, of course, telling the true story of actual people, and the research that went into this book is amazing. One look at the bibliography and your jaw will drop. However, there are things that cannot be known from research. The biographer's job is to tell the story in an engaging way that will live on the page, without embellishing the facts too much, to navigate between too strict a focus on reality and too fanciful an elaboration. Abbott accomplishes this brilliantly. Everything in quotation marks, in the book, was actually said by the real Everleighs, or other characters, and recorded in court documents, journals, or letters. But Abbott's story goes beyond the bare facts and delivers a prose that reads like fiction. None of the "we can't possibly know" or "it's unclear" but loads of vibrant descriptions, delightful details, and a narrative sense that really brings the landscape of the levee to life.

Sin in the Second City exploded my expectations. You know I loves me some violated dichotomies, yo. By defying the obvious choices, and creating her own rules, Abbott pays the Everleigh sisters great honor by putting them in the context they deserve. ( )

While not as good as Devil in the White City, as a Chicago history buff, I found this book an interesting read. Definitely a good story of 2 enterprising women! ( )

Interesting look at what was considered to be the "underbelly" of the community during the early 1900's. Gives a balanced look at the side of the brothel owners, as well as the religious and community leaders who's goal was to save the American soul from moral debasing.
Would recommend to anyone who likes historical books, without going to "history class." ( )

This would make the perfect compliment to Devil in the White City. Granted it's about prostitution and that was about murder and the World's Fair, but this one takes place about 10 years after White City and does a similar job of painting Chicago in all of it's dirty, crime-laden, prosperous excitement. ( )

At the turn of the 20th century, Minna and Ada Everleigh were determined to take control of their own fate. They began their own at-home business--a brothel--making it the best and the most exclusive such establishment in Chicago. Abbott puts the sisters story in context, giving full details about the politicians, businessmen, and reformers that ran in their circle. A fascinating tale about a fascinating time. ( )

Sin In the Second City, by Karen Abbott is the story of the two Everleigh sisters, Ada and Minna, who came to Chicage in 1899 to begin their own high-class brothel, one of the most notorious in the Levee district of the city. The sisters come to life as they encounter a variety of adversaries: Vic Shaw, the rival madam who tried, unsuccessfully for a while, to bring the sisters down; the Weiss brothers, wo ran the brothel next door; and most of all the reformers who tried to shut the brothels down. Sin In the Second City takes place in an era when Chicago, and the United States, were changing.

Abbott brings the past to life, and sometimes I kept forgetting that this isn't fiction. The Everleigh sisters were a complicated pair of women, who actually hated men; they simply learned how to handle them. I absolutely adored this book. As a blurb on the back of the book by Sarah Gruen, author of Water for Elephants says, "Sex, opulence, murder--what's not to love?" ( )

Once again I seem to be swimming against the tide of opinion on this book. Plainly and simply speaking, I didn't think it was all that great. The subject matter was interesting, and it's fun to be a voyeur sometimes, looking into people's shady lives, but I just didn't think it was that well written -- kind of dry in the execution. I love history (it was my undergrad, grad and postgrad field) and I love history when it's written so that the general reader can read, relate to and understand it, but for some reason, her writing style just left me flat. Also -- my bone of contention is that she didn't have credible sources for the real story of Everleigh sisters, but went on to tell the tale anyway.

Long and short of it -- I liked the subject matter, thought it could have been fleshed out quite a bit more; the writing (imho) was just flat. I've seen comparisons by readers of this author to the work of Erik Larson and (again imho) it doesn't begin to come close. I had to make myself finish this book and that's never good. ( )

This is an interesting look at the way crime and politics work hand in hand. It is the story of the Everleigh Club (the old-time chorus of "I'm getting Everleighed tonight" has been shortened to the phrase we're more familiar with), the women behind it, its patrons, its competitors and the politicians who allowed it to operate.

It's important to know going in that brothels were not exactly illegal at the point in history covered by this book. Prostitution and gambling were confined to "vice districts" - parts of the city set aside for just that purpose, like the famous Red Light District in Amsterdam. Prostitutes in these houses were registered with the police department. Madams made regular protection payments to both police and politicians. The period of time the book covers is a transition, where various forces are pushing politicians away from the pragmatic view - that vice will always exist and if we keep it segretated only those looking for it will find it - and a more Puritan view. During this time period, there was a flood of stories about White Slavery in American cities: young women came to the cities for jobs, then were drugged or seduced or shanghaied into service at various houses of ill repute. The Everleigh sisters, by comparison, tried to run a truly classy establishment - their "butterflies" recited poetry, always appeared in evening dress, never in tawdry lingerie, they even provided regular doctors' examinations for their girls. They were icons at the end of an era. ( )

Quite interesting - a bit of crossover with "Devil in the White City" (occurs during the same time period) ( )

This isn't a great book, but it did hold my interest. The tale of Chicago's brothels and the Everleigh sisters is a fascinating story and one I had not known until joining LT and noting this book was one mentioned by others. It is well written and researched. My only disappointment is that it seemed to fade in the end and it seemed to bog down with petty details. Other than that, though, it is worth reading. ( )

Fascinating Chicago history! ( )

Amazing. I highly reccommend this book. Informative and entertaining. ( )

This is one of the most readable non-fiction books I've ever read. Karen Abbot is great in that she writes good history that reads like a novel. Pulls you in, holds your attention and keeps you reading because you just gotta know what happens next! Of course, her choice of subject-the rise of Chicago's dark underbelly during the first 2 decades of the twentieth century and the very public fight between good and evil that followed. ( )

Interesting book about Chicago’s Levee “Red Light” district home of the famous Everleigh Club. (Men said they were going to get “everleighed” that night – it eventually got shortened and that is where we now say… “laid”). The fashionable, mysterious, business savvy Everleigh sisters, Minna and Aida (Ada) set up what arguably was the most famous brothel in America with fabulous rooms, a “Pullman buffet,” and thirty “butterflies to entertain gentlemen callers – after they learned Balzac and poetry per the sisters wishes. It was at the Everleigh club were the “drinking champagne out of a lady’s slipper” started during a special evening’s entertainment for Prince Henry of Prussia, as one of the butterfly’s accidentally lost her shoe and it collided with a champagne bottle…(pg. 76…Some of the liquor spilled into the shoe and a …man …scooped it up…”The darling mustn’t get her feet wet,”, …without further comment he drained the champagne from the shoe and tossed it back to it’s owner…Prince Henry’s entire entourage rose , yanked a slipper from the nearest girl and held it aloft. Waiters…hurriedly filling each shoe with champagne…”
Fascinating, fun and also in some parts sobering because many madams didn’t have “willing” girls in their clubs, there was white slavery, horrible abuse, and that barely skims the surface. It seems the oldest profession had its share of both high-class call girls and ones who suffered greatly in houses of ill repute where the madams stole most of their earnings and they lived in squalor.
What happens to the sisters, their move to New York City and neighbors who would have been quite shocked at their former "professions." Many tidbits here for history buffs and just a fascinating read about two women who worked in a seedy business but elevated it to the status of legend during the heyday of their club.... ( )

This book centers on the world's oldest profession and its heyday in Chicago from about the 1890s through the 1910s. Using a variety of archival sources, Abbott traces the rise and eventual closing of the Everleigh Club (which as Johnathan Yardley says "probably the most famous whorehouse in America's history") run by two sisters from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. The cast of characters in this book is certainly colorful, from the madams to the local neighborhood mobsters, to the politicians engaged in graft, and to the zealous moral crusaders of the day. While the recounting of events is most certainly accurate, the story fades towards the end, much like the colorful characters described so vividly in the first half. That's probably the biggest weakness with the book. ( )

I've seen perhaps a dozen reviews for this book in the past few weeks, and am convinced that not a single reviewer actually read the book. The subject matter has potential (very high end prostitution in Chicago around the turn of the twentieth century), but the execution is awful. Terrible. Seriously-wasting-your-time bad. Skip it. ( )

Sin in the Second City specifically discusses the rise and fall of the Everleigh Club in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century. The Everleigh Club was one of the extravagant attractions of Chicago between 1900 when the high-toned brothel opened and 1912, when a crusade against vice and white slavery forced Chicago's power brokers to close it down. Woven into the story of Minna and Ada Everleigh, the sisters responsible for both the tone and the services of the Club, is the story of the reformers who seek to eradicate vice and the corrupt politicians who patronize the Club, accepting bribes in exchange for protection while publicly outraged by its presence. Abbott thoroughly documents this happy triangle. The sisters ran a clean, professional cathouse. The reformers sang hymns in front of the brothels themselves, weeping over the the young girls who fallen into these dens of sin and degradation . And the politicians took advantage of both sides. Abbott's writing style is snappy. The (real) people whose lives the author follows are vividly described. She captures the human foibles that infuse this particular history while unobtrusively suggesting that there are modern parallels.

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