This is a breezy, well-written, non-academic history of the French Quarter and New Orleans generally -- literary equivalent perhaps to the best of the city's tourist tours. It is full of charming and outrageous anecdotes of all kinds and colorful characters from madames to politicians to thugs. Due to its age, there are a few politically incorrect musings, but overall the text comes across as relatively modern--particularly in the treatment of the wily and thuggish women/madames.

Needless perhaps to say, the focus is virtually entirely on the seedy side of the Quarter. Far less time (none?) is given to positive portrayals or to music or the influences of French and Spanish culture or to any serious investigation of voodoo and its Catholic influences. Hence, you get what you paid for -- a little titillation, a few laughs, some outrage--and a desire to check out the tour and have a cocktail. ( )

If contemplating whether to read "The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld," consider first this fact about the book's author, Herbert Asbury: Asbury's initial fame came in 1926 when H.L. Mencken published in Mencken's magazine, "The American Mercury," an article by Asbury about a small-town Missouri prostitute who serviced her Protestant customers in a Catholic cemetery, and vice-versa. The article achieved sufficient notoriety to get Mencken's magazine promptly banned in Boston. Adroitly sensing a promotional opportunity too golden to miss, Mencken quickly ventured to Boston, openly sold his magazine on the Boston Common, and was arrested with all deliberate haste. Mencken's magazine sales subsequently skyrocketed across the country, and Asbury's renown was assured.

Asbury brings the same (in)sensibilities required to write for national publication an article about a strumpet plying her trade in pastoral cemeteries to "The French Quarter." Reading other reviews will amply inform prospective readers regarding this wonderful book's stories about New Orleans, and how Asbury spins them so well for his audience. On a cautionary note, as may be expected in a book written many decades ago about racially charged times in a capital of the South, "The French Quarter" is far from politically correct by any modern measure. Proceed accordingly, but do proceed -- it's a fun, fantastic, and essential journey through the long, twisted history of one of America's great cities. ( )