Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York

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Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 868 ratings · 182 reviews

Post-Civil War New York City is the battleground of the American dream. In this era of free love, emerging rights of women, and brutal sexual repression, Freydeh, a spirited young Jewish immigrant, toils at different jobs to earn passage to America for her family. Learning that her younger sister is adrift somewhere in the city, she begins a determined search that carries...more

Paperback, 432 pages

Published November 21st 2006 by William Morrow Paperbacks (first published November 22nd 2005)

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Mar 30, 2008 Marigold rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, nyc

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Not as good as I expected. I would recommend this book to young women (16 & up) who maybe don't know a lot about women's history. It does make me want to know more about these women's lives. I imagine the truth is better than the fictionalization! There's a lot of explicit sexual content in the book. But even the sex was kind of dull! I found the characters, who were mostly real historical figures like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, & Victoria Woodhull, to be quite one-dimensi...more Not as good as I expected. I would recommend this book to young women (16 & up) who maybe don't know a lot about women's history. It does make me want to know more about these women's lives. I imagine the truth is better than the fictionalization! There's a lot of explicit sexual content in the book. But even the sex was kind of dull! I found the characters, who were mostly real historical figures like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, & Victoria Woodhull, to be quite one-dimensional. The fictional part of the book, about a Polish immigrant woman, was interesting but not very believable. There's some unbelievably stilted dialogue & an odd tendency to link the physical characteristics of women like Anthony & Stanton, to their personality characteristics!

Here is my two-minute synopsis, with SPOILERS:

Susan B. Anthony: Elizabeth, you mustn't eat any more! You're enormous! We need you to be a famous women's rights campaigner & you can't do it if you're too big to walk!
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Oh, shut up & go talk to the younger women. (Aside.) Look how thin Susan is, obviously she isn't getting any sex. She'll never get a man & have children. She'll have to do all the travelling & speaking while I write the speeches. I like that Victoria woman, she looks like she's getting some sex.
Victoria Woodhull: I need to make lots of money to overcome my poor family. I can do it because I'm beautiful & smart & I can use this rich man over here to help. (Makes money.) Now I need to become a famous women's rights advocate.
All characters - (Speeches made. Newspapers published.)
Anthony Comstock: No, you prostitute! I arrest you! And by the way, no one should be having any sex except me!
Victoria: Oh no! (Loses money.) I'm so depressed!
Susan, Elizabeth: let's forget about Victoria & be friends again.
Victoria: I'm moving to England & getting married. (Leaves.)
Freydeh: I need to make money, find my sister, & have a nice house. I'll work hard, become a condom manufacturer, & take in a few street kids along the way. (Makes money.)
Anthony Comstock: No, you prostitute! I arrest you!
Freydeh: Oh no! (Loses money.) Oh well, no use being depressed. All I have to do is work twice as hard & find my sister.
(Some live. Some die.)

(less)

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Jan 25, 2011 Cecilia Solis-sublette rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this one though it's not a book for the faint-hearted, I would guess. Here, the author tells the personal history of women that drove the womens' rights movement in the United States and those who opposed them. Intermixed, is the story of a woman searching for her sister who ends up going into business for herself by manufacturing condoms. What I found most interesting about the account is the histories of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Victoria Woodhall, Anthony Comstock, a...more

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May 24, 2008 Yosafbridg rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was first introduced to Marge Piercy by a grad school roommate and i tore through all the books i could find written by Piercy up to that point. I just discovered Sex Wars: A Novel of the Gilded Age New York covering the lives of early suffragettes Susan B. Anthony and (the seemingly more likable, tho less famous) Elizabeth Cady Stanton; sensationalistic (first female presidential candidate) Victoria Woodhull and her rather colorful family; the fictional Jewish immigrant Freydeh Levin; as well...more I was first introduced to Marge Piercy by a grad school roommate and i tore through all the books i could find written by Piercy up to that point. I just discovered Sex Wars: A Novel of the Gilded Age New York covering the lives of early suffragettes Susan B. Anthony and (the seemingly more likable, tho less famous) Elizabeth Cady Stanton; sensationalistic (first female presidential candidate) Victoria Woodhull and her rather colorful family; the fictional Jewish immigrant Freydeh Levin; as well as crusader on the side of the lord, Anthony Comstock fighting against obscenity as well as anything outside of "normal" sex roles, in the "turbulent post-civil war years".
This is yet another novel of shifting narrative perspective and some voices seem to be rendered more truly than others (it also did a bit of jumping back in forth in time that had me constantly referring to other pages, but that could just be my chronologically challenged mind.) The character of Fredeh seemed to me one of the most poignant (perhaps because Piercy was not limited so much by historical accuracy in her~and was condom-production really the only good money making option outside of prostitution for the non-seamstress-single-woman, because it didn't seem to draw in a whole hell of a lot?) and even Comstock seemed somewhat more fully drawn (perhaps fruit of a struggle to make him at least a touch sympathetic?) the rest of the characters sometimes fell into stiltedness or caricatures, but not horrendously so, and it was an easy, quick, yet still edifying read (especially on the tail end of an illness when my brain wasn't ready for much.)
As an interesting aside, here's a description of the presidential election of 1876:
"By midnight, when they finally got into bed it was clear that Tilden had won the popular vote by a considerable margin. As the Herald trumpeted the next morning, Samuel Tilden was now president.
However, the Times said the election was too close to call. Henry and Elizabeth talked more during the next weeks than they had in a decade. The election was being stolen, through the three Southern states still under Reconstruction regimes. Boards were set up in Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida that disqualified thousands of ballots for Tilden and certified ballots for Hayes even when the number of ballots exceeded the number of voters in a district. Weeks turned into months and still the election was in doubt. The election finally came down to Florida and the disputed votes there. The states had no president. The democrats were protesting fraud. Finally the election was thrown into the Supreme Court, where Republicans outnumbered Democrats. The crooked election was certified along strictly partisan lines. Rutherford Hayes became the next president while Tilden retired from public life."
Sound slightly familiar?
At least there was no mention of hanging chads.
All in all, this is not Piercy's Best work (Gone to Soldiers is heart wrenching & beautiful, Braided Lives one of my favorites, and He, She and It is great science fiction) but it is still very much worth reading. There are only a few historical novels i take much interest in (or maybe more than a few, now that i think about it~but there are many that i take no interest in) this is one that i enjoyed reading. And, as i said, this oh-so-very-knowledgeable librarian learned a great deal from it, so how can you beat that?(less)

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Mar 15, 2007 Lauren Cordes rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: every woman should read this!

Shelves: haveread

This book was really amazing. It made me realize we women had NO rights back in the day; we were property of our husbands. If we worked all our money went to our husbands and if you weren't married you were constantly working hard labor making very little money to survive.

The book takes place from the 1860's through the early 1900s. I really loved it because it is an historic fictional book almost entirely about how women lived and tried to fight for their rights in New York City. Some of the f...more

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Nov 25, 2008 Nancy Ferreyra rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. History unfolding in a novel format. I read it around the time of all the election madness and it was a good reminder of how far we've come, which gave me hope.

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Dec 07, 2008 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

A historical novel of the early days of the women's movement, this book follows the exploits of four groups of people, only one of which was wholly fictional. The narrative covers the period just after the civil war, and concentrates on the period of the Grant presidency. There are Victoria Woodhull and her sister, Tennie Claflin, free thinkers and pioneers in that they were the first women to open a wall street brokerage and Victoria ran for president in 1872. They aligned themselves with the w...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, american-history-nf-fic

Books that keep me thinking long after I have finished the last page get more stars from me. Although I don't agree with all that these true characters thought and did, I believe that they made a (mostly positive) difference in U.S. history. I knew a little about Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but glad that the author really brought them alive in this work of historical fiction. I checked and learned that the facts of their actions are correct and that their writings show the feeli...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Susan Emmet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Got to this book via Joyce Carol Oates. It's a roller coaster and the timing is sometimes confusing as Piercy skips around between and among years, primarily focused on the 1870s during the Gilded Age.
Freydah Levin, a Jewish immigrant from the Pale, is sort of the focus. She comes to NY with her husband Moishe (who soon dies in an accident)and "adopts" three Jewish street children who remain faithful to her. She manufactures condoms in their tenement apartment and sells to local pharmacies and b...more

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Jun 14, 2010 Melody rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, historical-fiction

Sex Wars is authentic Marge Piercy: politically engaged and unflinchingly honest in its portrayal of the early suffragist's sexual lives ... their affairs, their sexual passions, their frigidities. Piercy's novel follows major players among the Seneca Falls suffragettes and the early women's rights movement--Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull--as well as some of the average women who might have benefited from their work, and the men who sought to destroy it.

Although the...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Joyce rated it 4 of 5 stars

Marge Piercy knows how to find the facts and craft a mesmerizing story around them. The setting is the last half of the 19th century New York, the topic is sex, gender and economics and the cast of characters include real people we all know a little about with a few fictitious ones thrown in for emphasis. There's Elizabeth Cady Stanton - intelligent, mother of 7, freethinking, irreligious and very sensual; Susan B. Anthony - straight laced, strictly moral, a fierce supporter of marriage though u...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Brianna Wright rated it 1 of 5 stars

I really wish the STAR rating on this thing had negative numbers because this book would definitely fall under a HORRIBLE category. I made it a whole 30 pages before I was ready to throw this thing in a blazing fire. The stories were intriguing, but I could not read another word of a manuscript that seemed as if it went straight from being written to being published.

In just the few pages I read, the author constantly repeated EVERYTHING! At one point, two of the characters are drinking two diffe...more

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Jan 20, 2011 Christine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

Totally fascinating historical novel starring Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B Anthony, the evil Anthony Comstock and the heretofore-unknown-to-me Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for President of the United States, in 1872. Well-researched and dramatic, it shines light into the lives of these feminist heroines as well as the notorious Society for the Suppression of Vice head-jerk Comstock, who was responsible for throwing hundreds of people into jail, costing people their lives, and con...more

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Jan 13, 2009 Andrea Dowd rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was very impressed by this novel by Marge Piercy. I originally picked it up because the title was fun (I'm a bit naughty, I know) but I was amazed by all the work that went into creating a fictional life based on real players in the changing tide of women's rights, immigrant's struggles, and censorship laws.

The story revolves around Freyda, a Russian Jew barely surviving in the tenements of New York. She adopts street children in danger of dying every single day, searches for her sister who ar...more

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Nov 23, 2008 courtney rated it 3 of 5 stars

parts of this are beautifully written, parts are way too didactic... i loved the way the novel follows these disparate characters and how their lives all eventually intertwine... but there were many times when i felt like i was getting the same information again and again. it is not as sophisticated a novel as i would have liked: there was a lot of expository dialogue and some moments that were far too "clever."

all that said, it was very engrossing and told a very important story. it opened my e...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Cat rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book addresses a fascinating fifty year period and with admirable feminist verve. Following the lives of women from various walks of life but equal commitment to furthering their autonomy and their political and economic goals, Sex Wars features fascinating characters from free love spiritualist and first woman to run for U.S. president Victoria Woodhull to notorious and successful abortionist "Madame Restell," to those founding mothers of the American women's movement, Elizabeth Cady Stant...more This book addresses a fascinating fifty year period and with admirable feminist verve. Following the lives of women from various walks of life but equal commitment to furthering their autonomy and their political and economic goals, Sex Wars features fascinating characters from free love spiritualist and first woman to run for U.S. president Victoria Woodhull to notorious and successful abortionist "Madame Restell," to those founding mothers of the American women's movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Piercy also recognizes what a different world the so-called Gilded Age represented for the working classes and the poor; some of the most poignant material in the book comes out of the life story of an (I think) invented Jewish American immigrant Freydeh who begins a condom manufacturing business. Piercy's central paradox is the fervor of the postbellum years regarding sex and women's independence--some, like Anthony Comstock whose censoring (and censorious) tale she tells with barely disguised disdain, who see the world changing and are determined to put a stop to it, and others, like Woodhull who celebrate women's pleasure in sex and knowledgeable control of their own bodies.

A lot of the information Piercy includes here I did not know before, such as Stanton's commitment to publishing against Christian treatments of women as inherently sinful, in spite of the fact that these essays and books met with great outrage. Woodhull is a totally fascinating figure, as much as charlatan as an ideologue, and I'd love to read more about her. Piercy is on to something with her themes--that this was a time when urbanization, prosperity, and the New Woman led to changing social mores that really outraged and alienated many people (Comstock and another traditionalist character, Asher, both of whom PIercy depicts as patriarchs who miss the small-town values of their youth). And her cast of characters is well-chosen, their storylines interweaving in thematically productive ways. (Freydeh the condom maker crosses paths with Comstock, much to her detriment, as does Woodhull, and so three of the central characters, each from a different walk of life, find their public fates and conflicting ideologies entangled.)

Unfortunately, this is an incredibly didactic book. Piercy's opinions about women's sexuality and social activism come through loud and clear, and the straightforward narration about these themes never quite seems to fit in the minds of the characters whose reflections are ostensibly being ventriloquized. Also, Piercy clearly fell in love with her research, and when she enters in on a scene description or a biographical anecdote, or even cultural context, I felt as though the narrator were announcing 'We now interrupt our regularly scheduled novel programming for an excursus into a book report on historical facts about this period.' The writing just felt clumsy and awkward, a limitation that made the explicit sex scenes rather uncomfortable--ironic in a book about how important it is to be frank and unashamed about sex.(less)

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Sep 25, 2011 Jenny rated it 2 of 5 stars

I’ve been a fan of Marge Piercy for years, but I found this book a little rushed and abrupt. It’s a fictionalized account of the post-Civil-War period in the US. Succeeding chapters are from the viewpoint of Victoria Woodhull, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony Comstock, and a young Jewish immigrant named Freydeh.

Piercy tells us what’s going through the minds of these famous people, but in the process, she flattens them. It’s an interesting period, and her characters are all interesting people, bu...more

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Aug 30, 2009 Lincolnwood Public LIbrary rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, book-club, historical-fiction, multicultural, social-commentary, strong-female-character, strong-sense-of-place, thought-provoking, gail-reads

I have not studied US history or literature extensively. However, I have been a student at "Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts" for two years in a row. A major lesson at MG's school is to celebrate your sensuality and sexuality as often as possible. I read Sex Wars to continue that aspect of my explorations.

I was unaware of the contributions of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Antony, and Virginia Woodhull to the overall improvement of women's lives--from safe sex to child custody to suffrage t...more

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Oct 06, 2009 Tara Chevrestt rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, women-that-really-existed-fiction

I struggled thru the first half of this novel. Kept telling myself it would get better. It didn't. After being introduced to a religious zealot that I had absolutely no interest in (actually started skipping his chapters) and Victoria Woodhull (portrayed as a scam artist and early day hippie,) I hit part two and finally called it quits. Why? Not only was I not enjoying or getting a feel for any of its characters (the exception being the Russian immigrant Freydeh. She alone has kept this novel fr...more

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Dec 20, 2008 Rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 07, 2007 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: history buffs

Boy howdy, there sure were a lot of hookers during the Victorian/Edwardian era. And free love advocates, suffragettes, and home condom manufacturers.

Enjoyable historical fiction, with slightly stilted dialog. Read it in a public place and get strange looks.

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Nov 24, 2008 Paula rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a captivating work of historical fiction taking place mostly in New York City during the Gilded Age, and focusing on women and their role in late 19th century society. The novel is about one fictional character, a Jewish immigrant woman, whose story is interwoven with those of feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Victoria Woodhall, among others, and the conservative fundamentalist and anti-feminist zealot crusder Anthony Comstock. Great insights the free-thinkers of t...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Allison Hepler rated it 4 of 5 stars

Marge Piercy was one of my favorite authors when I was in my 20s so it was a treat to find this book -- a historical novel about Victoria Woodhull, who I'd heard of but only in the contexty of some long-forgotten sex scandal. Piercy brings her and her family to life, along with woman's rights activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and well-known anti-smut activist Anthony Comstock. She also introduces a purely fictional character Freydah, an Eastern European immigrant who makes a li...more

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Jun 15, 2010 Elaina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library

I'm puzzled why some editions are titled Sex-Wars: the Gilded Age in New York City and some are titled Sex Wars: A Novel of the Turbulent Post-Civil War Period.

I would have given up on this book about half-way through if I hadn't cared so much about what happens to one of the myriad of characters in teh book: Freyda, the young Jewish widow who eked out a living making vulcanized rubber condoms.

I also eagerly lapped up the wealth of period detail (including tips on using an outdoor latrine when...more

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Jan 04, 2010 Bill rated it 3 of 5 stars

I learned a lot about the women's rights movement, 19th Cent. US History, and mostly appreciated the portraits of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Victoria Woodhull who were clearly complex, powerful independent thinkers and do-ers. Not only were they ahead of their own times, but if they were alive today they would be ahead of OUR times!!

However, I was really surprised at the poor quality of the writing. Marge Piercy has written some of the best novels (and best historical novels) ever written - like...more

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Mar 25, 2010 Pat rated it 2 of 5 stars

Historical fiction 1870's - women's sufferage movement---Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, Anthony Comstock - his crusade to clean up America and Victoria Woodhull - first woman to run for president.

I picked this book up because I had just attended a one-woman show on Susan B. Anthony so I was in that sort of mind set. It wasn't a wonderful read but I just kept plugging away and finally finished it.

I had never heard of Woodhull or Comstock but they did in fact exist. Although when I...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Beth rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have to note that I am trained as a woman's historian and that this period in U.S. history is fascinating with a myriad of activist work taking place. The characters, hence issues, that Piercy brings to life in this book reveal the women working within the layers of this grand society in which men naturally shared great privilege while women had to use a sledgehammer to create a space in which to simply exist. Victoria Woodhull, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony Comstock, and more -- all here to...more

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Dec 20, 2009 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not only is this period in history one of my favorites to read about, Piercy also has picked some interesting historical figures to structure her story. She brings together the suffragist movement (Elizabeth Cady Stanton), the free love movement (Victoria Woodhull, also a proponent of women's rights), the beginning(?) of the anti-obscenity crusade (Anthony Comstock, the chapters on whom were the most laugh-producing and also the most sobering, given the parallels between him and the current ultr...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Ilona rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, health, sex-sexuality, fiction-general

Set in the late 1800's and early 1900's, this book recounts the stories of several woman and one awful man, all involved with, either for or against, women's suffrage and sexual freedom. Each character has their own perspective on and experience of this period of American history. I was particularly drawn to the story of Freydeh, a young Jewish immigrant, but all the stories are compelling. An intriguing peek into a time whose issues and challenges, and responses to those issues and challenges,...more

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Jun 26, 2009 Jenny Schmenny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Eh. Marge Piercy. An unusually good poet (I dislike poetry) and a really disappointing novelist. This one's historical fiction, following different threads of mostly real people through NY's gilded age and focusing on reproductive rights and the women's suffrage movement, more or less. Good stuff, right? She's following Anthony Comstock, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull, and some other folks. Pure gold, except that Piercy's so damn preachy and explanatory that I feel like disagreeing wi...more

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Aug 05, 2009 Marvin rated it 3 of 5 stars

This follows the lives, in separate chapters set mostly in New York City mostly in the 1870s with one flashback and an epilogue carrying the stories forward, of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock, and a young Jewish widow who works her way out of poverty after immigrating from Russia by making & selling condoms (this anonymous woman provides the richest story line). It's interesting material & interesting characters, but badly written &...more

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