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The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon: The Report of the Secret Commission

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W.T. Stead serialized his report on child prostitution in London in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1885. Until now it has never been published in monograph form, although parts of it are available on the Internet. The report is of tremendous importance to anyone interested in the social aspects of Victorian England. Its impact in its time was considerable and it was largely responsible for the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act. This was the most far-reaching piece of British legislation ever enacted addressing the sexual exploitation of young girls and also included the so-called Labouchère Amendment, which provided the legal means of prosecuting homosexuals for the following eighty years.
The editor's annotations are meticulous and valuable in documenting Stead's sources, not to mention his occasional mistakes. His introduction does not provide a thorough overview of scholarly research on Victorian sexuality (this is done elsewhere). It does, however, achieve its goal in documenting efforts to combat organized prostitution in the courts and in the legislature from the 1820s.
This book is the definitive edition of Stead's important work and is indispensable for anyone concerned with Victorian morality and social history.

From: the Doctor of Journalism website, [...]
"Long overdue re-issue of Stead's classic tabloid crusade (about 100 years before 'tabloid crusade' became a concept) with meaty annotations. A must-read for journalism historians."

From The London Journal, July 2008:
"It is exceedingly useful to have this series of articles gathered together in one place, inclusive of Stead's own commentaries (not always easily distinguishable from the actual reports) and the published responses of his readership for and against the case he was making.... The text has helpful footnotes translating words and phrases in other languages in the original, explicating usages or allusions which might be opaque to the modern reader, identifying named individuals, and so forth. [The editor's introduction] is workmanlike [and] provides an extremely solid account of the relevant laws and their history."

From The Sociological Review, August 2008:
"[T]his publication contains a major primary source that documents Victorian attitudes toward female sexuality and its exploitation.... Drawing on established scholarly work, [the editor's] lengthy introductory essay places the Maiden Tribute articles, and the [Criminal Law Amendment] Act, firmly within their historical context. Despite being a challenging undertaking, Simpson efficiently summarises the various efforts, and the changing attitudes, of the moral purity movement, feminists, religious reformers, and the emergent middle-class to control organized prostitution by legislative means over the previous sixty years. Annotations, again by Simpson, identify people and places mentioned, and clarify many of Stead's references. The essay, and Simpson's annotation of the text, is clear and well written, and all the explanations are concise and articulate... The book will appeal to all scholars researching the Maiden Tribute articles themselves, the legal history regarding the age of consent specifically, or the social and political landscape surrounding the passage of the 1885 Act more generally. Although this book will be most beneficial to those coming to the Maiden Tribute articles for the first time, criminologists and social and legal historians alike will surely find this book an invaluable reference tool."

From The Law & Politics Book Review, March 2009:
"Simpson does Stead's work a great service by lending his voice to the piece, bringing together complexities the reader would not otherwise have understood. The introduction is a crucial addition to the work and brings together the arguments Stead attempts to make.... Simpson's introduction certainly validates some of the arguments that Stead makes throughout the body of the text.... Simpson's introduction and annotations throughout the text are indispensable to this collection of articles--he translates words and corrects grammatical errors thoroughly. This helps give the reader a broader understanding and ability to analyze Stead's observations.... This book makes a useful contribution to the study of Victorian Great Britain and will be of great value to historians interested in both social development and legal development in the U.K. In addition, criminologists and European legal scholars will find this book of importance.... It is most definitely a book that scholars will benefit from reading, and it would be a worthwhile assignment for upper level undergraduate British and international history courses."