Courtesans (Text Only)
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About this ebook
This edition does not include illustrations.
‘Irresistible…history at its most human. Elegant and addictively readable.’ William Dalrymple
During the course of the 18th- and 19th-century a small group of women rose from impoverished obscurity to positions of great power, independence and wealth. In doing so they took control of their lives – and those of other people – and made the world do their will.
Men ruined themselves in desperate attempts to gain and retain a courtesan's favours, but she was always courted for far more than sex. In an age in which women were generally not well educated she was often unusually literate and literary, courted for her conversation as well as her physical company. Courtesans were extremely accomplished, and exerted a powerful influence as leaders of fashion and society. They were not received at Court, but inhabited their own parallel world – the demi-monde – complete with its own hierarchies, etiquette and protocol. They were queens of fashion, linguists, musicians, accomplished at political intrigue and, of course, possessors of great erotic gifts. Even to be seen in public with one of the great courtesans was a much-envied achievement.
In ‘Courtesans’ Katie Hickman, author of the bestselling ‘Daughters of Britannia’, focuses on the exceptional stories of five outstanding women. Sophia Baddeley, Elizabeth Armistead, Harriette Wilson, Cora Pearl and Catherine Walters may have had very different personalities and talents, but their lives exemplify the dazzling existence of the courtesan.
Katie Hickman
Katie Hickman is the author of six previous books, including two bestselling history books, Courtesans and Daughters of Britannia. She has written two travel books: Travels with a Circus, about her experiences travelling with a Mexican circus, which was shortlisted for the 1993 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and Dreams of the Peaceful Dragon, about a journey on horseback through the forbidden Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. She was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year award for her novel The Quetzal Summer. Katie Hickman lives in London with her two children and her husband, the philosopher A.C. Grayling.
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Reviews for Courtesans (Text Only)
93 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I greatly enjoyed the portraits of the courtesans presented here; I was quite unfamiliar with all of their stories and each certainly seems interesting enough to warrant a book of her own.The author often strays from the lives of her primary subjects, which can be a little difficult to follow (Oh, we're talking about Lady Whatsername instead of the main character now? okay! Oh wait... now we're back to the focus of this chapter? okay!). Given the rich subject matter, though, I am quite willing to forgive her.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I picked this, and another book, up because of an enduring fascination with geisha, courtesans, and the various versions of the demi-monde in general. I found this book to be remarkably thorough in its examination of the principle courtesans of the period, and Ms. Hickman is quite good at drawing a picture of what life was like for them. Although the book focuses on 5 exceptionally well known courtesans (Sophia Baddeley, Elizabeth Armistead, Harriette Wilson, Cora Pearl, and Catherine Walters), there is much mention of other members of the demi-monde. Particularly when Ms. Hickman made reference to courtesans of the previous period, and told drawn-out anecdotes regarding their lives for purposes of comparison against the principles, the text could be difficult to follow. For the most part, however, the book was an engaging, enjoyable read. If you are at all interested in courtesans or in what life was like for the wealthy of the shadow world during this time period, this book is a must have.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The bulk of this book is summaries of five or six English courtesan's lives, rich with anecdote and footnote. If you don't know if you'd like this gossip, read the Conclusion first -- it's only a few pages long. Hickman admires the courtesans for maintaining their independence when it was almost impossible for any woman to do so. I think this is begging the question a little, as we keep the name `courtesan' for the most successful in their profession, but it's a good point that the very few women who *could* choose between independence, however risky, and marriage, so often chose independence. Elizabeth Armistead married Charles James Fox, nor destroyed his political career while doing so, but as he was a friend to liberty all his life that may be a special case. Certainly one likes them both as much as everyone else seemed to. What the courtesans could do, and how they were thought of by the powerful and the populace, changed over this long century. That this is related to the changing place and rights of women in England generally is swiftly and comprehensively covered. Indeed, I think Hickman is being gentle and subtle throughout in not pointing out how little protection respectable women had; one of the courtesans is first put 'on the town', that is to say, on the market, by her own husband, and another is drugged in a public place in childhood and never goes home again. (It's not all that grim; Harriet Wilson and her sisters and friends are more convincingly 'good-time girls' who make their living at it.) Not subtle, only because it's such a drumbeat, is how much adultery was well-known among the English aristocracy of the time, male and female, generation after generation (or maybe in the same few intertwined and irrepressible families). It's less obvious how the different mores of England and France affected the lives of the courtesans, except the obvious, that France defined luxury -- in the appropriate regimes -- but English wealth was more reliable. Katie Hickmans' other history book, [Daughters of Britannia], is about women of the diplomatic families. I would love to know what she thinks of the clash-of-cultures kerfuffle currently going on about charges of rape against the (French) head of the IMF; not the particulars of his case, but the more general claims and counterclaims of what's normal among the powerful, or the French, etc etc.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I acquired two books about courtesans at around the same time, and "The Courtesan's Revenge" (about Harriette Wilson) looked more interesting than this one. So II only read the introduction and a few other bits, avoiding the chapter on Harriette Wilson since I had a whole book to read about her.An interesting tidbit from the chapter on Cora Pearl: Emile Zola based Lucy Snow in his novel "Nana" (which I have read) on her.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5very readable account of some English Courtesans in the 18th and 19th Century displaying the double standards prevalent now and then.