E-text prepared by Woodie4, Suzanne Shell, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 28267-h.htm or 28267-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/2/6/28267/28267-h/28267-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/2/6/28267/28267-h.zip) VENUS IN BOSTON; A Romance of City Life. "Ah, Vice! how soft are thy voluptuous ways! While boyish blood is mantling, who can 'scape The fascination of thy magic gaze? A Cherub-hydra round us dost thou gape, And mould to every taste, thy dear, delusive shape." BYRON'S CHILDE HAROLD {First published 1849} CONTENTS VENUS IN BOSTON; A Romance of City Life INTRODUCTION 3 CHAPTER I. _The blind Basket-maker and his family._ 3 CHAPTER II. _Innocence in the Grip of Lust._ 7 CHAPTER III. _The Rescue._ 17 CHAPTER IV. _A night in Ann street._ 20 CHAPTER V. _The Chevalier and the Duchess._ 52 CHAPTER VI. _The Stolen Package._ 75 CHAPTER VII. _Showing the operations of Jew Mike._ 90 CHAPTER VIII. _The Chambers of Love._ 98 [Illustration: Frontispiece to _Venus in Boston_, 1850 edition. By courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library.] INTRODUCTION I conceive it to be a prominent fault of most of the tales of fiction that are written and published at the present day, that they are not sufficiently _natural_--their style is too much exaggerated--and in aiming to produce startling effects, they depart too widely from the range of probability to engage the undivided interest of the enlightened and judicious reader. Believing as I do that the romance of reality--the details of common, everyday life--the secret history of things hidden from the public gaze, but of the existence of which there can be no manner of doubt--are endowed with a more powerful and absorbing interest than any extravagant flight of imagination can be, it shall be my aim in the following pages to adhere as closely as possible to truth and reality; and to depict scenes and adventures which have actually occurred, and which have come to my knowledge in the course of an experience no means limited--an experience replete with facilities for acquiring a perfect insight into human nature, and a knowledge of the many secret springs of human action.