Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century

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.

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."

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.

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 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.