The Covent Garden Ladies

Pimp General Jack & The Extraordinary Story of Harris' List

By: Hallie Rubenhold

Narrated by: Lucy Rayner

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.

love this author

I have enjoyed every book I have read by this author. this one is no different. well researched and written, I ended up caring for the people in the story.

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.

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)?

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.