![]() ![]() (It was thought she escaped a more extreme sentence by threatening to reveal the names of her clients - the wives, lovers and daughters of some of the city’s most influential citizens.) Later, entrapped by the Christian crusader Anthony Comstock, she faced a much harsher sentence and killed herself by slitting her throat. Lohman was jailed numerous times and eventually served a year in prison. Manning’s novel is based on the life of Ann Lohman, a New York midwife who practiced abortions in the 19th century under the sobriquet Madame Restell and whose profession and subsequent wealth turned her into a tabloid villain. MY NOTORIOUS LIFE By Kate Manning Scribner, $26.99. After reading the novel you may well feel you’ve witnessed a piece of medieval high camp or spent the weekend at a Renaissance Faire trying to escape the pawing hands of a sweaty, sexually voracious jouster. But these passages - and some fleeting attempts at seriousness, as in brief considerations of the basic similarities between Christianity and paganism - aren’t enough to rescue “Godiva” from self-satire. Galland’s description of the ride is convincing: her Godiva employs a calm dignity against masculine power to great effect. ![]()
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