'I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart.' So begins THE VIRGIN CURE, a novel set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in 1871. As a young child, Moth's father smiled, tipped his hat and walked away from her forever. The summer she turned twelve, her mother sold her as a servant to a wealthy woman, with no intention of ever seeing her again. These betrayals lead Moth to the wild, murky world of the Bowery, filled with house-thieves, pickpockets, beggars, sideshow freaks and prostitutes, where eventually she meets Miss Everett, the owner of a brothel simply known as "The Infant School". Miss Everett caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for companions, and the most desirable of them all are young virgins like Moth. Through the friendship of Dr. Sadie, a female physician, Moth learns to question and observe the world around her, where her new friends are falling prey to the myth of the "virgin cure" - that deflowering a maid can heal the incurable and tainted. She knows the law will not protect her, that polite society ignores her, and still she dreams of answering to no one but herself. There's a high price for such independence, though, and no one knows that better than a girl from Chrystie Street...
| ISBN | 140914349X | | Pages | 368 | | ISBN13 | 9781409143499
(What's this?) | | Published in | London | | Publisher | Orion Publishing Co | | Height (mm) | 234 | | Imprint | Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) | | Width (mm) | 153 | | Format | Paperback | | Academic level | General | | Publication date | 05 Mar 2012 | |
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"Finely crafted and remarkably researched.... While set in the past, the book informs the modern dialogue on feminism, the sex trade, and choice." --Stacey May Fowles, "The Walrus" "A worthy follow up to...The Birth House.... Character, setting, mood and plot are melded naturally to create a Dickensian world of deprivation and determination." --"Winnipeg Free Press" "A powerful novel, rooted in the same elements that made The Birth House both critically lauded and a bestseller.... One of McKay's gifts and skills as a writer is her ability to utterly immerse the reader in her fictional world.... A powerful, affecting novel." --Robert J. Wiersema, "National Post" "Fans of McKay's bestselling novel The Birth House are going to love The Virgin Cure.... McKay's vivid prose can trigger in readers the taste of a hot bowl of oyster stew, the reek of Chrystie Street tenement houses and the sound of a taffeta skirt's hem brushing the floor of a concert saloon.
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