Courtesan: A Novel (Paperback)

by Dora Levy Mossanen (Author) "I pinch my nose shut and gulp down two raw rooster gonads..." (more)
Key Phrases: lust vein, royal jeweler, clover hill, Mme Gabrielle, Dora Levy Mossanen, Jean Paul Dubois (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
A sweeping romance with intrigues in both fin de siècle Paris and repressive Persia, Mossanen's engrossing second novel (after Harem) follows the sentimental education of a young seductress. Though Simone knows from a young age that she's too romantic to follow her courtesan mother, Françoise, into the family business, her grandmother, famed Parisian madam Gabrielle (née Ester Abramowicz), isn't so convinced. A really handsome man, she figures, can seduce Simone, and thus initiate her into the habits of wealthy courtesans. Gabrielle sets upon Cyrus, a handsome Persian jeweler, and Simone is intrigued by the man who supplies only the rarest diamonds to the shah's court ("Was the origin of red diamonds the blood of mistreated diggers, the blazing eyes of dragons guarding illicit mines, or the tears of children forced into hard labor?" she wonders). She succumbs to his charms—but then they fall in love. Simone moves with her new husband to the rugged mountains of Persia to make a quiet life living as Jews in a Muslim country, but her happiness is short-lived. Abrupt shifts between times and locations confuse, but the engaging plot wins out. And while the sex scenes are a bit overcooked (Simone "directed the creamy gaze of her breasts" at a suitor), readers will find themselves gripped by spirited Simone's many adventures.
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From Booklist
Raised by her mother and grandmother, two of France's most popular courtesans, Simone rejects the plush life of France for true love. When she is introduced to the Persian shah's Jewish jeweler, Simone falls in love and joins her new husband in Persia. She becomes wrapped up not only in the exotic world of Persian Jews (Simone is Jewish) but also in court intrigue and the dangerous world of diamonds. Eventually, Simone is also forced to employ some of the lessons learned at her mother's bedside. Like Mossanen's debut novel, Harem (2002), this lush and erotic story covers the lives of three generations of forward-thinking and daring women. Mossanen commits the cardinal sin of historical fiction writing: creating unlikely friendships between her characters and historical persons. In this case, Simone's courtesan grandmother is a close friend of Emile Zola (whose first and last names are both used each time he is mentioned). However, the story is sexy enough and the historical details interesting enough that few readers will mind. Marta Segal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; First Edition edition (June 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743246780
• ISBN-13: 978-0743246781
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #311,552 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mossanen's second novel, September 17, 2005

By	Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

COURTESAN by Dora Levy Mossanen
September 17, 2005

Amazon Rating: 4/5 stars

The story of three generations of French prostitutes, COURTESAN is the love story between a Persian jeweler and the daughter and granddaughter of French courtesans, who only wants to find love.

Simone is part of a legacy spanning three generations of expensive courtesans living in Paris. Simone, however, does not have plans to follow in her mother and grandmother's footsteps. Madame Gabrielle, the matriarch of the family, is very disappointed but tries to convince Simone to follow in the family trade by introducing Simone to a Persian jeweler, whose expertise is in red diamonds. Unfortunately for Gabrielle, Simone and Cyrus fall in love and marry. To escape her family's disappointment in her, they move to the mountains of Tehran where they live in peace and happiness.

While the book starts out as a romance, it soon takes on the feel of a mystery, when Cyrus disappears and is presumed dead, and Simone tries to put the pieces together and find her husband's murderers. The center of the mystery is the red diamonds, and Simone believes that he knew something about these diamonds that endangered his life.

While part of COURTESAN focuses on the mystery of the red diamonds and Cyrus's disappearance and probable murder, the other important theme is the family origins of the Honore' family. The reader will learn, through Gabrielle's letters to Simone, the truth about their family, and what Gabrielle tried to hide from her daughter and granddaughter for all those years. In turn, a few of the characters in the book are not who they claim to be, and by the end of the story, the reader will fully understand Gabrielle's epic-like story and how her life as a courtesan came to be.

I enjoyed COURTESAN, but not as much as I loved her debut, HAREM, which I felt, was better written. Despite having said that, I do recommend COURTESAN for lovers of historical fiction. I will definitely read her next novel, whatever it may be.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lush, Erotic, and Excellent Second Novel, with a Few Surprises, June 27, 2005

By	Doug Marks (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

If you're looking for a great summer read of the lush variety, I recommend "Courtesan", by Dora Levy Mossanen. I was a big fan of her first novel ("Harem"), and eagerly awaited this second book. Now that it's here (I got my hands on an advanced copy!), I am eager to sing its praises to both individuals and book clubs (it has a book club guide at the back of the novel, and I have recommended to my own club coordinator that we tackle "Courtesan" next).

GENRE: Historical fiction, very lush, very well-researched, some magical realism (Mossanen has been called a Persian Isabel Allende)

PLOT (no real spoilers contained below): Courtesan, like Harem, follows three generations of Jewish women. It is set primarily in late 1800s France and Persia. The matriarch of the family, Madame Gabrielle, transformed herself from a rabbi's daughter stuck in a ghetto to France's foremost courtesan. She spends her time speaking with the spirits of past lovers (an array of famous French artistes, politicians, and philosophers), maintaining her magnificent chateau (places and settings play a huge role in the novel -- from the chateau to the famous bed that hosts the womens' exploits), and scheming ways of convincing her granddaughter, Simone, to conform with the family profession. In this novel, courtesanship is not prostitution, but a respectable, lucrative, and indeed empowering profession (the women use their minds more than their bodies).
Gabrielle's daughter is Francoise, who is somewhat vapid by design but with good reason (I won't spoil anything by telling you why). Her daughter, Simone, is the true hero of the novel. The focus is on her search for identity, for love, and for reconciling the demands that society places upon her (everyone wants a piece of her, partly because her skin emits incredible scents and perfumes) with her desire for independence. Her quest takes her to Persia, South Africa, and finally back to Paris. Mossanen, who is Persian by descent though she was born in Israel, does some of her finest writing in describing the travails Simone faces when she follows her true love to that country. (Harem was set in Persia.)
An interesting subplot involves the international diamond trade, especially the trade in red diamonds. I will not say too much here for fear of spoiling some of the book's best surprises. Just know that this novel is much more than a romance book (you might even dispute that it is a romance novel)...there is a murder, a mystery, and it all involves international finance and the neverending quest for perfect diamonds.

GENDER APPEAL: Though I suspect that the majority of readers will be female, the book has much to offer to male readers. There are very compelling male characters (Cyrus, the Shah's jeweler and a major love interest; Alphonse, a Persian butler with a secret role, etc.) As a male reader, I was especially into the mystery aspect of the novel, which marvelously supplements the lush and exotic (and even erotic) main plot.

STRENGTHS: Gorgeous, lyrical writing; vivid characters who stay with you after you put the book down, magnificent settings in three intriguing historical locales (1800s Paris, Persia, and South Africa); a surprisingly suspenseful plot.

WEAKNESSES: The book does jump back and forth quite a bit in both time and location (from Persia to Paris and back again). I did not find the jumps confusing, because there is a consistency of characters and the jumps are well signposted at the beginning of the chapters. Yet there were a couple times that I regretted a jump because I wanted to know the outcome of a subplot sooner rather than later!

OVERALL RATING: I give this second novel a 5 out of 5, because Mossanen has managed to tell another fascinating, magical, engaging tale in a way familiar to readers of her first novel, but with new elements. If you loved Harem, you will love Courtesan. And if you haven't read Harem, you will find Courtesan a great introduction to Mossanen's beautiful writing.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A historical fiction novel focusing on the theme of professional seduction and sex, September 22, 2005

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

The author of HAREM, Dora Levy Mossanen's latest work is COURTESAN, which, like her previous novel, focuses on the theme of professional seduction and sex. COURTESAN's protagonists are three women from three different generations: Madame Gabrielle, the matriarch and grandmother of the d'Honore family; Gabrielle's daughter, Francoise; and Simone, Francoise's daughter. Both Gabrielle and Francoise are courtesans --- high-priced French prostitutes. They're wealthy and powerful and have been in bed with many wealthy and powerful men. Simone, however, is repulsed by this life and believes in true love. Gabrielle tries her best to convince Simone otherwise, introducing Simone to her world by persuading a Persian jeweler to be Simone's first experience. Unfortunately for Gabrielle, Simone and Cyrus fall in love, marry, and move away to Tehran against Gabrielle's wishes.

The first half of the novel reads like a romance. The focus then shifts to Cyrus and his work with red diamonds. There is a mystery associated with these diamonds, as Cyrus thinks he's discovered something that is illegal and tries to determine what it is. When he disappears and is thought to be dead, Simone goes into mourning but is then determined to find out what happened to Cyrus --- and eventually finds herself in the middle of this mystery.

Cyrus courted Simone with red diamonds when he first met her, and he also wore a red diamond in his ear. The diamonds are central to their story, but at the same time Simone's need to be her own person and not the courtesan her mother and grandmother want her to be drives the story.

The shifts in time Mossanen employed throughout the book were not to my liking as they were choppy and without rhythm, but this did not detract from my enjoyment of the book. What I found most pleasurable were the characters and backdrop of the story. 1900s Persia and Paris offer a romantic setting amid the world of the wealthy courtesans. Madame Gabrielle, with her ability to speak to spirits, was especially fun to read about. She has all sorts of wonderfully interesting dead spirits hanging around her, including Franz Liszt and Oscar Wilde, and they can be found floating under her armpits and sitting on her breasts, giving advice or commentary. Very lighthearted bantering goes back and forth between Gabrielle and her many old lovers --- some long gone, others only recently deceased.

The character of Simone stood out because she's strong and not afraid to defy her family's "heritage." The most riveting part for me was learning about the true history of Simone's family and the fact that Gabrielle had hidden from her daughter and granddaughter their real identity and where they came from.

What Mossanen does best in her books is detail beautiful historically romantic settings and describe characters in such a way that they all come to life as on the big screen. Her stories span long periods and her characters' lives are based on history, but there is always that touch of the spirit world that sneaks into her stories. While COURTESAN could have used more structure, it was enjoyable and I'm looking forward to more of Mossanen's work.

--- Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton [...]