Courtesans [Paperback]

Katie Hickman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2003

Sex, Money and fame in the 19th century

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; HarperCollins (2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007174179
• ISBN-13: 978-0007174171
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,684,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rarely covered segment of history, June 28, 2004

By 

Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century (Hardcover)

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.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grand Horizontals, February 24, 2004

By 

P A Brown (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century (Hardcover)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Biography/Social Histroy, August 5, 2004

By 

Gypsi Phillips Bates "bilbiophile" (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century (Hardcover)

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.