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Title: Courtesans : Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century by Katie Hickman ISBN: 0-06-620955-2 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 25 November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: 5 Women of the demi-monde
Comment: 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: 4
Summary: Grand Horizontals
Comment: 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: 4
Summary: Not subjective enough about the subject
Comment: 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.
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Title: Grandes Horizontales by Virginia Rounding ISBN: 1582342601 Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Pub. Date: 07 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love by Betsy Prioleau, Elizabeth Stevens Prioleau ISBN: 0670031666 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 23 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Risqué Beauty: Beauty Secrets of History's Most Notorious Courtesans by Daniela Turudich ISBN: 1930064098 Publisher: Streamline Press Pub. Date: January, 2004 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: A Venetian Affair by ANDREA DI ROBILANT ISBN: 037541181X Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Memoirs of a Courtesan in Nineteenth-Century Paris (European Women Writers Series) by Celeste Venard De Chabrillan, Monique Fleury Nagem, Celeste Mogador ISBN: 0803282737 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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