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The Ex-Classics Web Site Book of the Month -- May 2025 The Covent Garden Calendar As a companion piece to our edition of The Newgate Calendar, we have compiled an anthology of prostitution in Britain during (mostly) the 18^th Century. It is in three parts: Book 1: The Night-time Scene has a number of essays describing the milieu; Book 2: Individual Courtesans gives the lives of eight ladies of the Ton, and finally Book 3: Fiction has five short novels about prostitutes.  The pieces chosen are almost all contemporary, ranging from 1696 to 1803, and in attitude run the gamut from picaresque approval to moral condemnation to compassion for the suffering of the women forced into prostitution.  Previous BOMs AboutUs The Ex-Classics project was founded in 2000 to fill an unmet need.  When reading the blurb etc. to a book by Charles Dickens or Charlotte Bronte, say, we would often come across sentences like "Favourite reading included . . ."  If  it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us. So off we go to the library or bookshop, to be met first with blank stares and then with the information that the book has been out of print for decades. Our first two books were Gil Blas and Hudibras, which are prime examples of this. This web site is dedicated to rescuing these works from obscurity and making them available online, both for reading directly, and for downloading. What do you think? Any comments about this site or its contents? E-mail us (Click here) We have an occasional newsletter - please say if you want to be added to the mailing list. We never give out your details to spammers, or anyone else, for that matter. No-Copyright notice This site and its contents are public domain and free to the world. Anything in it may be copied and distributed free of charge or obligation. [There are one or two exceptions to this,which are clearly marked where they occur.] We expect this policy to be passed on - anyone who copies our texts or web pages and tries to claim copyright for themselves is stealing - not from us, but from you, and from everyone. An example of what we mean.

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