Description: Laure Adler, one of France's most powerful cultural figures, has devoted her writing career to the exploration of women's roles within French society. In this book, she ranges far beyond the bordellos of her title and describes the lives of the three major kinds of prostitutes in France: courtesans and other kept women; registered bordello prostitutes; and the poorest, most pathetic kind, the unregistered street girls. Combining a wealth of sources -- police reports, legal documents, court testimonies, and medical records, as well as literary texts and the very rare diaries of madams and prostitutes that have survived -- and a passionate, flowing literary style, Adler tries to uncover the story of "the women themselves, who are, after all, like all other women".

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