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Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century | 
 enlarge | Author: Katie Hickman
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $2.99
You Save: $11.96 (80%)
New (23) Used (38) from $1.79
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 87732
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 1
ISBN: 0007743971
Dewey Decimal Number: 900
EAN: 9780060935146
ASIN: 0060935146
Publication Date: November 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
During the course of the nineteenth century, a small group of women rose from impoverished obscurity to positions of great power, independence, and wealth. In doing so they took control of their lives -- and those of other people -- and made the world do their will. Extremely accomplished, well-educated, and unusually literate, courtesans exerted an incredible influence as leaders of society. They were not received at court, but inhabited their own parallel world -- the demimonde -- complete with its own hierarchies, etiquette, and protocol. They were queens of fashion, linguists, musicians, accomplished at political intrigue, and, of course, possessors of great erotic gifts. Even to be seen in public with one of the great courtesans was a much-envied achievement.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Because There Has Always Been Scandal September 19, 2008
Is it weird for a 15 year old girl to be fascinated by prositution and sex in the Victorian Age? Well, when I was 15 (I'm 20 now), I started learning about what I was interested in and topics I cared about, instead of the stuff I learned in school. Ever since I was 13, I loved the Victorian Age, but was always told it was the "innocent times." Well, it certainly was not. To skip ahead, courtesans seemed so fascainating to me, and one day when I was in a Barnes & Noble, I saw this book from afar. I went up to it and immediately wanted it. Sadly, my mom wouldn't buy it for me. But luckily, it was in my city's library system and I got it. I read it in fall 2004 in school (I mention that cause I would get teased for reading a thick book, yet no one realized I was reading about high class prostitutes, aka mistresses). The book was very interesting. It told great stories and includes several pictures as well. To anyone who is interested in the Victorian Age, sex in the Victorian age, etc., I highly recommend this.
And never believe when people say, "No, times were innocent back then." That's what people I was going to school with said, yet failed to believe that these courtesans, who are mostly the equivalent to our modern female entertainers, were scandalous back then. I found this book to be an easy read. I don't recall zoning out of it that much, maybe not even at all. So if you share my love of these times or this rather specific subject, get the book. Or just look for it at a bookstore and page through and check out the pictures, and how small some of the women could get their waists in corsets.
 I was constantly frustrated April 8, 2008
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.
Wonderful, but... December 22, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a highly entertaining and well-written book, but the courtesans the author covers are British, and just as the Virginia Rounding book on their French counterparts, fails to extend past Second Empire/Mid-Victorian(1870s) France and Britain.
Entertaining & educational August 7, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
A Delightful Romp June 26, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
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