Madame Restell

Copyright © 2023 by Jennifer WrightCover design by Kimberly GlyderCover photographs: embellishments © lloloj / Getty Images; woman © Beeldbewerking / Getty ImagesCover copyright © 2023 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.Hachette BooksHachette Book Group1290 Avenue of the AmericasNew York, NY 10104HachetteBooks.comTwitter.com/HachetteBooksInstagram.com/HachetteBooksFirst Edition: February 2023Published by Hachette Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Hachette Books name and logo is a trademark of the Hachette Book Group.The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events.To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.Print book interior design by Jeff WilliamsLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataName: Wright, Jennifer, author.Title: Madame Restell: the life, death, and resurrection of old New York’s most fabulous, fearless, and infamous abortionist / by Jennifer Wright.Description: New York, NY: Hachette Books, [2023] | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2022032437 | ISBN 9780306826795 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780306826818 (paperback) | ISBN 9780306826825 (ebook)Subjects: LCSH: Restell, Madame, 1811–1878. | Abortion services—New York (State)—New York—History—19th century. | Abortion—New York (State)—New York—History—19th century. | Women in medicine—New York (State)—New York—Biography. | Patent medicines—New York (State)—New York—History—19th century. | Restell, Madame, 1811–1878—Trials, litigation, etc. | Trials (Abortion)—New York (State)—New York—History—19th century.Classification: LCC RG734.R47 W75 2023 | DDC 362.1988/80973—dc23/eng/20220708LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022032437ISBNs: 9780306826795 (hardcover); 9780306826825 (ebook)E3-20230104-JV-NF-ORI CONTENTSCoverTitle PageCopyrightDedicationPrologueCHAPTER ONECHAPTER TWOCHAPTER THREECHAPTER FOURCHAPTER FIVECHAPTER SIXCHAPTER SEVENCHAPTER EIGHTCHAPTER NINECHAPTER TENCHAPTER ELEVENCHAPTER TWELVECHAPTER THIRTEENCHAPTER FOURTEENCHAPTER FIFTEENCHAPTER SIXTEENCHAPTER SEVENTEENCHAPTER EIGHTEENCHAPTER NINETEENCHAPTER TWENTYCHAPTER TWENTY-ONECHAPTER TWENTY-TWOCHAPTER TWENTY-THREECHAPTER TWENTY-FOURCHAPTER TWENTY-FIVECHAPTER TWENTY-SIXCHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENCHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTEpilogueAcknowledgmentsDiscover MoreAlso by Jennifer WrightNotes FOR MY DAUGHTER, MADELINE Explore book giveaways, sneak peeks, deals, and more.Tap here to learn more. PROLOGUEWINTER, 1878ALTHOUGH IT WAS 10:45 P.M. WHEN MADAME RESTELL OPENED the front door of her Fifth Avenue brownstone, her face seemed unsurprised by what she saw: a strange man in a black suit, shivering on her landing, the harsh puffs of his breath lingering between them in the cold January air. After all, how many men like him had found themselves hovering upon her doorstep over the past forty years? These men knew of Madame Restell’s reputation as a woman of skill and discretion. Perhaps this man had just come from supper with his mistress, who had informed him of some unwelcome news. Or he might have been a husband whose wife was in the kind of ill health that would prevent her from having more children. Perhaps he already had more children than he could afford to feed.“May I speak to Madame Restell?” he asked.“Do you wish to see her professionally?”1 Her voice lilted with a hint of its original West Country accent.He nodded. The woman beckoned him inside.Winding her way through her drawing room, Restell walked—according to the man observing her—with “a stride that was firm, for all advancing years, and a bearing that flaunted a callous defiance.”2 She hardly resembled the part of “hell’s representative on earth,” as her nemeses liked to call her; rather, the elderly Restell looked more like the regal grandmother she was.3 She had been beautiful once, even her harshest critics acknowledged, like Countess Ellen Olenska moving among the glamorous circles of Victorian New York. Gone now were the luxurious frocks and diamonds that had accentuated Restell’s once curvaceous figure. In their place—albeit still glittering with jewels—lay a black silk mourning dress, worn in memory of the husband she’d lost the year before.At sixty-six years old, Madame Restell had begun to strike people who saw her as a “careworn woman.”4 Her brown hair, impeccably styled as ever, was now flecked with gray; yet, after all these years, her elegance hadn’t dimmed. Her dark brown eyes remained as keen and piercing as ever.And neither did her magnificent Fifth Avenue brownstone look—as some protesters had been known to shout from the street—as though it were “built upon a mound of baby skulls.” The house itself, mere feet from the construction site of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, imposing with its Corinthian columns, looked like the home of someone as refined as they were powerful. The interiors were as sumptuous as any of the rooms in Edith Wharton’s novels, full of oil paintings, artistic bronzes, and statues. The marble floors were covered with Turkish rugs. Marble columns flanked the stairways. Ladies could gather around two pianos to play and sing in the evening if they so desired.Restell and her newest guest made their way downstairs to her basement office, where she and her granddaughter Caroline, by then her apprentice, conducted their business. She invited him to take a seat.The stranger was still shivering, face pinched with anxiety beneath his great beard and mutton chops. A scar on his left cheek gave him a particularly pitiable air. Once settled, he informed her that he’d seen her advertisements and wanted something to prevent a woman from giving birth.Restell asked him whether the woman he’d come for was married or unmarried. “If unmarried, it’s a case of needing immediate action,” she told him sternly. “If married, there’s less necessity for hurrying.”5This was Madame Restell’s indirect way of making sure all her clients actually wanted an abortion. She lived down the street from an orphanage; sometimes, she told female patients that she could help them find a family to adopt the baby if they wished. Indeed, in cases where the pregnancy was especially advanced and abortion seemed unsafe, she pressured her patients to opt for adoption over an operation. Some did. Most did not.The man before her refused to say anything more about the