Courtesans : Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century

Rating:
Summary: (3.5) The demimonde: flaunting the wages of sin
Review:
Hickman's study of five nineteenth century courtesans covers an era of particular interest, because these women, in spite of their notoriety and questionable morals, were a mainstay of French and English society, their favors, parlors, and assignations always in the public eye. Successful courtesans enjoyed an extraordinary freedom in a repressed society, flaunting their beauty and living in the most extravagant circumstances. These women were politically astute and intellectually curious, the salons drawing from all aspects of high society. The female wiles that restricted other women became a hidden asset for these clever ladies, who made and spent fortunes in pursuit of fame.

The five women highlighted in the book illustrate the changes and adjustments these famous courtesans made as one century changed into another, old-fashioned manners and charming pretensions giving way to more socially sophisticated lifestyles. Sophia Baddeley was an untalented actress with a mercurial temper, who benefited from her father's connections to the theater. She had a voracious appetite for clothes, jewels and sexual liaisons to ease her boredom. Elizabeth Armistead was best known for her romance with the Whig, Charles Fox, assured a place in history by virtue of this great affair.

Harriette Wilson began her "career" with Lord Craven in 1802, the beginning of a brilliant climb to success, her manner more brash than her eighteenth century sisters. Cora Pearl was a star in Paris, where English visitors luxuriated in her cosmopolitan charms. Cora was a blunt-spoken "professional" with a business sense, a quality lacking in most of her cohorts. Catherine Walters (Skittles) had a beauty that inspired hopeless romantic passion from her many admirers. An avid horsewoman, she lived a long life in the midst of her demimonde society and lived to be an old woman, ever the gossip, lover of all things equine and the attentions of famous men.

A society is always curious about those who successfully break the rules, especially the notorious "fallen woman". Men have ever been willing to pay the price for a beautiful woman's attention, especially when watched with envy and avid curiosity by others. Using much anecdotal documentation, the author quotes publications and personal letters. Although frequently digressing on particular lovers and incidental courtesans of the day, Hickman paints a vivid picture of courtesan life, the glamour, the glory and the quest for fame of some extraordinary ladies who defied conventional propriety and mores, all to advance themselves in the rarified demimonde. Luan Gaines/2004.






Rating:
Summary: Excellent Biography/Social Histroy
Review: Courtesans is both biography and social history. It follows the lives of five prominent English courtesans (Sophia Baddeley, Elizabeth Armistead, Harriette Wilson, Cora Pearl and Catherine Walters), giving an individual biography of each woman. The biography then forms the center of the social history, as Hickman shows British society of that time in relation to the particular courtesan--with the exception of Cora Pearl, who spent most of her time in Paris and therefore it is Parisian society that is explored.
Cora Pearl

Though there are many other courtesans equally as well-known, Hickman focused only one from each epoch of British society. She then gave briefer biographies of that courtesans friends and rivals as part of the social history.

Though short, each biography is excellently done and with them Hickman gives a surprisingly detailed account of London social life--the demi-monde as well as "real" society--over a period of nearly 150 years. Birth control, women's rights, and prostitution also receive in depth treatment by Hickman, as she constructs social history around these famous ladies.

Hickman shows the world that is excluded from most histories and thereby the reader is able to construct a fuller picture of the world of high society in London from the time of George III throughout the early 1900's. I can not recommend this book highly enough to anyone interested in the social history of Britain during these times.

Rating:
Summary: Grand Horizontals
Review: This gripping biography of the British courtesans in the late 18th to early 20th centuries is more about power than money or sex as the title indicates. There is nothing here to titilate. These women, all different in approach and appreciation, wielded great influence in a man's world, relying on little more than their intellect and allure.

The historical asides offered by Hickman are as fascinating as the mini-biographies of the five women profiled. Make no doubt about it, whatever the outcome in the long run, each of these women were successful businesswomen within the context of their era. What they were not is common drabs or politicized activists. A sister book, "Grande Horizontales," about French grand courtesans of the same age (including a profile of Cora Pearl, a British woman in France), is not nearly as well written nor captivating. Still the subject, with its whiff of decadence and luxe glamour, is absorbing.

Rating:
Summary: A rarely covered segment of history
Review: This is a well researched and well written account of a segment of society rarely covered in detail by historians. While it gives extensive details of five particular courtesans over a 150-year period of time, contrasting their beginnings, life styles, and societies of the time, the author has also included information on other courtesans as well as introductory material on the role of courtesans in the social structure.

Real courtesans were not prostitutes, as indicated by another reviewer. They held a higher place in the social structure. In a way they were mistresses, but sometimes had more than one patron. Unlike prostitutes, they were independent, i.e, they did not have a pimp or madam. They received callers of their own choosing at their own residence, or sometimes traveled with patrons.

It was helpful to be pretty, but important to be intelligent, amusing, charming, and a good companion. They preferred patrons with the same attributes, but a patron also had to have money. Courtesans tended to have extravagant lifestyles. It was not uncommon for men to provide them with a life annuity. For men, it was a sign of social status to be able to afford a courtesan, providing her with a house, a carriage, horses, jewels, money for fancy clothing, etc.

The account provides a good look at the society and politics of the time period. It also illustrates the double standard, where a married man could openly have a mistress, but a married woman involved with another man could be turned out into the street in the middle of the night to live or die.

For a look at a French courtesan, see the motion picture "Camille," although be forewarned that the motion picture has a sad ending that may make you cry. For something more upbeat, the motion picture "Gigi" is about a young woman being trained by her grandmother to be a courtesan. For contrast, the motion picture "Irma La Douce" is a lighthearted look at a French prostitute. All of these are set in Paris.

Rating:
Summary: A rarely covered segment of history
Review: This is a well researched and well written account of a segment of society rarely covered in detail by historians. While it gives extensive details of five particular courtesans over a 150-year period of time, contrasting their beginnings, life styles, and societies of the time, the author has also included information on other courtesans as well as introductory material on the role of courtesans in the social structure.

Real courtesans were not prostitutes, as indicated by another reviewer. They held a higher place in the social structure. In a way they were mistresses, but sometimes had more than one patron. Unlike prostitutes, they were independent, i.e, they did not have a pimp or madam. They received callers of their own choosing at their own residence, or sometimes traveled with patrons.

It was helpful to be pretty, but important to be intelligent, amusing, charming, and a good companion. They preferred patrons with the same attributes, but a patron also had to have money. Courtesans tended to have extravagant lifestyles. It was not uncommon for men to provide them with a life annuity. For men, it was a sign of social status to be able to afford a courtesan, providing her with a house, a carriage, horses, jewels, money for fancy clothing, etc.

The account provides a good look at the society and politics of the time period. It also illustrates the double standard, where a married man could openly have a mistress, but a married woman involved with another man could be turned out into the street in the middle of the night to live or die.

For a look at a French courtesan, see the motion picture "Camille," although be forewarned that the motion picture has a sad ending that may make you cry. For something more upbeat, the motion picture "Gigi" is about a young woman being trained by her grandmother to be a courtesan. For contrast, the motion picture "Irma La Douce" is a lighthearted look at a French prostitute. All of these are set in Paris.

Rating:
Summary: 5 Women of the demi-monde
Review: This is a well-written book concerning a sub-genre of women in the late 18th to early 20th centuries: the courtesans, or women who used their sexual allure to attract men to give them financial backing for their extravagent lifestyles. It's a fascinating glimpse into another type of life, and what amazed me is the avidity with which the careers of these women were followed by the majority of people of the time. In an age that didn't boast supermarket tabloids, the "respectable" newspapers ocasionally had articles about these women and their exploits. There was, to be truthful, a double standard operating here: a woman courtesan was not necessarily welcome everywhere in "polite society", but a man who dallied openly outside of his marriage vows had no such shunning problem. Have we advanced more in our supposedly "enlightened" days? I guess so, but it's not much of a gain for us, I believe. Read this book to get a feel for a style of life that's gone now, but is very interesting all the same.

Rating:
Summary: Not subjective enough about the subject
Review: Throughout Cortesans Hickman makes it clear that she is not only facinated by her subjects, but is deeply invested in making sure the reader end the book with the same admiration for them that she has. She fails. Hickman repeated lauds the five prositutes whose stories she recounts as "independant" and "powerful", but it becomes painfully obvious to the reader that Hickman has an agenda, she's determined to paint these women as proto-feminists, as opposed to the opportunists they were. Despite their "independance", these women were solely dependand on the fortunes of thier male protectors for money and not one made sound personal or financial decisions. Despite their "power" these women were almost all entirely at the mercy of fashion, thier careers ended aburptly as the women themselves went out of fashion. Elizabeth Armitage was the exception, and her story is particuarily intersting. An interesting read all the same, but too little academics and too much opinion for my taste.