Murder of Helen Jewett The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New York

"She has done a great deal of research, seems to have done it well, and simply cannot bear to let go of any of it; this is a common scholar's and writer's ailment, for which she must be forgiven, but the book would be better at a hundred pages shorter. More troubling is that, adhering to current academic fashion, Cohen cannot let the tale stand on its own but insists on reading into it morals and judgments that reflect our own times and temper far more than they do Helen Jewett's....It is a pity that Cohen succumbs to these temptations, for in most other respects she has carried out her task with skill and intelligence."Cohen, Patricia Cline is the author of 'Murder of Helen Jewett The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New York', published 1999 under ISBN 9780679740759 and ISBN 0679740759.