This highly impressive book provides a detailed study of prostitution in Amsterdam from 1650 to 1750. The variety of topics covered by the author is fascinating, including the different types of bawdy-houses and their internal hierarchies, legislation concerning prostitution and legal proceedings against prostitutes and bawds, as well as contemporary concepts of honour and early modern attitudes to prostitution. Van de Pol draws on a broad range of evidence, which includes: travellers' accounts of visits to brothels and music houses; representations of prostitutes in popular literature (especially Het Amsterdamsch Hoerdom, or Amsterdam Whoredom, first published in 1681); as well as legal documents and, in particular, transcripts of trials found in the Confessieboeken der gevangenen (‘Confession Books of the Prisoners’). This enables her to recreate in rich and illuminating detail the world of the early modern brothel and also to conjure a vivid sense of the policing of prostitution.