Customer Reviews

Courtesans

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

The book charts the lives of 5 women, who in this modern day would be classed as prostitutes, call girls, take your pick. They did indeed sell their favours for money, but these were not women of easy virtue, far from it. They had far more to offer to the men in their lives than mere sexual favours.

They were talented women, the fashion icons of their day. Intelligent and well read. Musicians and even linguists. Yes they were erotic, had the faces and the bodies that attracted men to them, but they were a far cry from the women who frequented taverns and the back streets of London selling their bodies to anyone and everyone who had a few coppers to spare.

These courtesans had an agenda and that agenda was to lure a rich patron into their web. Their attributes could help to give themselves a wonderful life. A life that they would probably never have experienced without the use of their feminine wiles and the gullibility and weakness of men.

Katie Hickman gives a compelling account of the lives of these five women. A glittering life that most people in the 18th and 19th century could normally only dream about.

I agree with the other reviewers that this is an interesting book, and I found Hickman's take on the subject illuminating. She categorizes the differences between the women she profiles in a way that makes each of them unique and memorable, and made me rethink some of my own views about sexual mores. For example, Hickman entertainingly compares one of her historical figures to the fictional Lydia from "Pride and Prejudice". I had always taken the narrator's point of view when reading that book; Hickman illustrates convincingly that "party girls" like Lydia should not have been treated as criminal beings.

However, I can't say I was that impressed with all of Hickman's scholarship. She makes odd errors, such as stating that one of her courtesan subjects was an excellent horsewomen, then quoting a contemporary description of the woman as a weak horsewoman, and making no comment about it. Hickman doesn't seem as familiar with the periods and places she is describing as I would have liked: she quotes the Goncourt brothers' rather derogatory opinions of a Jewish courtesan as fact, without investigating whether anti-semitism might have had anything to do with their comments. (Some scholars find the Goncourt brothers both anti-semitic and unreliable, not to mention misogynistic.) When Hickman describes the fashions of Regency England, she mentions that one would have had to be "very slender" to wear a certain type of revealing ballgown, without seeming to be aware that "Regency slender" was quite a bit heavier than 21st-century slender.

Hickman also tends to overstate the importance and worth of her subjects; in my opinion she's a little too in love with the idea of the power of the courtesan. I agreed with what I saw as her basic goal: to show that the courtesans she profiled were intelligent and talented, and should not be forgotten by history. But I disagree that they were all admirable; I prefer to look up to women like Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, Rosa Bonheur, Sarah Siddons, Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Inchbald, Louisa May Alcott, Ida B. Wells, etc.--women who managed to make their own living in a time that was inimical to their work, without fleecing any rich lovers. As Wells wrote, "I will not begin at this late day by doing what my soul abhors; sugaring men, weak deceitful creatures, with flattery to retain them as escorts or to gratify a revenge." Hickman champions the opposite opinion: that courtesans should be lauded for using their power over men, even to the point of "ruining" their lovers. Whether the strictures placed on women in the 19th century justify this attitude is up to the individual reader to decide.

Another provocative thought is whether things have really changed that much since the 19th century--beautiful women who display their sexuality openly (Britney, Paris, Angelina, Madonna) are still pretty much the top of the heap and the biggest earners in today's American society, no matter how much ground we've gained in improving women's place in the workforce. Yesterday's courtesans scandalized society by wearing makeup; today's Hollywood starlets look on plastic surgery as an investment. Society still has a long way to go before women are fully respected for attributes other than looks and "hotness".

I 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.

History, gossip, antecdotes, quips and quotes about some of the world's most fascinating women and the men who loved them. Sample quotes: "No man who has an account at Cartier's could be regarded as ugly." "Dates make ladies nervous and stories dry." "I hold everything which is not love to be mere dull intervals in life." And "It is strange that we courtesans should alone be worthy and able to converse with philosophers."

I was excited to pick this book up because I was interested in both the subject matter and the biographical approach, but very soon after starting it I became frustrated at the writer's tangential, almost attention-deficient writing style. It is clear that she has studied the subject in great depth and seems breathlessly excited to tell you simply *everything* she's learned, but I found myself wishing she'd stick to a single narrative long enough for me to remember who we were hearing about. The book attempts to arrange itself in five separate sections, each telling the story of a prominent courtesan of the era, but their individual stories are hastily chucked by the wayside for long ruminations on other topics (fashion! parties! politics!) and mini-biographies on tangential characters. Footnotes constantly lead the reader off track, insisting you know that so-and-so was, in time, married to the third Earl of such-and-such, almost as if the writer has too much information to impart. This jump-cut style manages to muddle even the chronology: at one point a story makes mention of a character's 3 children whose births have not so much as been hinted at, then gives directions in the footnotes to skip 3 pages *forward* should we be interested in the story of how she had children in the first place! It seems this unbelievably exasperating detail could have been solved with a simple edit. In fact, this whole book could have been trimmed down significantly to present a more engaging and understandable story -- or could have perhaps been re-ordered such that the author isn't telling numerous stories on top of each other. It's clear that the author has great passion and indisputable scholarship on the subject; I only wish it could have been more clearly communicaated.

The book focuses on five specific courtesans who lived during the "long nineteenth century," the 150 years encompassing the heyday of the courtesan in England and Europe. It explores the culture of the demi-monde, the "half-world" inhabited by courtesans, and the monde, the high society in which the aristocracy lived, and the attraction-repulsion between the two worlds: The men of the monde who loved and supported their chosen courtesan and their wives who despised and villified these "fallen women," yet, at the same time, emulated their fashions and habits. It's a story of concepts--independence, control over one's own destiny, sexual freedom--which today seem impossible to deny to any free woman, yet caused the women in this book to be pushed aside, forced to live at the boundaries of respectable society, essentially punished for having these "unnatural" desires.

My only quibble with the book concerns the final biography, that of Catherine "Skittles" Walters. The author seemed to focus more on the story of her most ardent admirer, Wilfred Scawen Blunt, than on Catherine herself, with a great chunk of her middle years devoted instead to the telling of his actions at the time, leaving her at the periphery. Perhaps the data to fully tell her story was missing. It's hard to know. Otherwise, the rest of the book does an excellent job.