The Covent Garden Ladies

Pimp General Jack & The Extraordinary Story of Harris' List

By: Hallie Rubenhold

Narrated by: Lucy Rayner

Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

The Covent Garden Ladies tells the story of Samuel Derrick, Jack Harris, and Charlotte Hayes, whose complicated and colorful lives were brought together by the publication of Harris' List, an infamous guidebook of prostitutes which detailed addresses, physical characteristics, and "specialties". The true history of the book is a tragicomedy motivated by poverty, passionate love, aspiration, and shame. Its telling plunges the listener down the dark alleys of 18th-century London's underworld, a realm populated by tavern owners, pimps, punters, card sharps, and of course, a colorful range of prostitutes and brothel-keepers.

©2005 Hallie Rubenhold (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

I couldn’t finish it because of the narration

I know people like different voices and it’s a big part of the audio but I just couldn’t listen to this.

Interesting history

Educational and interesting history, particularly since information is so limited for women in this era. I really appreciated the content.

Narration was odd. Every sentence was read the same way regardless of content. I eventually got used to it, but the delivery could have been much more engaging.

An interesting topic

Good for a deep dive into social politics. Just a little slow in narrative and narration. The author did well with the tiny bit of historical data we have to rely on.

Narration is distracting

I like Hallie Rubenhold a lot - I thoroughly enjoyed “The Five” and both seasons of her podcast “Bad Women.” She is a feminist scholar unafraid to challenge old, victim-blaming tropes about vulnerable women who became victims of violent crime. I am struggling mightily to engage with this audiobook, however, because of the very strange narration. It seems like some sort of AI voice programmed to read soft core porn. The nuance, historical detail, and general substance are hard to glean because of this off-kilter delivery. Rubenhold has made a serious name for herself — perhaps it would pay to re-release this title - one of her earlier works - with better narration (maybe even by the author herself)?

Interesting subject, poor execution

- Most of the content is devoted to the life stories of the two men behind the list, and one prominent courtesan plus the main man in her life... So it's mostly about men. You know, like most of history. Content is less about the actual women than about what men thought about them. Though of course, that's what survives in the historical record.
- This is history, not a fun beach read. Don't read if you're not up for hearing a lot of mysogynistic attitudes and narratives described. Pimps are sympathetic figures just trying to get by, women are nauseatingly objectified, and sexual assault is treated with a dry normalization... Much as the historical record would/does.
- If you're a fan of the TV show, it's mildly interesting to hear where the inspiration comes from. A few names, a few incidents. But that's it. Don't read this hoping for Harlots season 4.
- Mildy amusing to compare which fetishes seem odd and archaic and which remain common today.
- Performance was BAAAD. Inflection was so repetitive, the same for sentence after sentence. Don't think its even human; pretty sure it's AI. Audible, I pay you money to have actors read me books, not computers.