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margaret21's review
5.0
This is a rattling good read. It's quite a gossipy account of the lives and times of five of the better-known courtesans living and working in England and France from the 18th to the 20th centuries. To say it's 'gossipy' is to underrate it, however. Hickman's style is tremendously readable, but she's resesarched her subject matter exhaustively. The courtesans themselves, and the wide social spehere in which they mixed is described in detail and sympathetically. I came to the last page reluctantly, feeling I'd learnt a lt about the social history of the times, and of the lives of women in particular.
heather_freshparchment's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Antisemitism, Pregnancy, Grief, Miscarriage, and Misogyny
friendofgosig's review against another edition
3.75
Lots of this book was very interesting and on the whole it was well-written, but I felt that it wasn’t sure what it wanted to be. Structurally it covers the biography of five courtesans, but it is both more and less than that. The reason for this I think is just the fact that there is not that much evidence about some of the women she was writing about, and so a lot of time is spent describing the experiences of other women, and the men in their lives. Often the sources are limited to one or maybe two points of view for the whole biography, and though the author does acknowledge the bias in some of her sources, that does not really change the limitations to her vision.
wyemu's review against another edition
1.0
Taking five courtesans as 'case studies' Hickman looks to explain the social and economic times in which they lived. Unfortunately not many of those she looks at had happy endings, failing to save their money when they had it and ending up nearly penniless. The social conventions are well explained, however, there are times when she seems to go off on a tangent in trying to explain these conventions in detail. Whereas I think using specific examples of well known courtesans worked well to give an example of the changing times in which they lived, it would also have been useful to get a general overview of other courtesans working at that time and a general chapter on how society viewed them and their place in it.
staceylynn42's review
4.0
Entertaining history focusing on 4 specific women - Sophia Baddeley, Elizabeth Armistead, Harriette Wilson, Cora Pearl and Catherine Walters - over a 130 year period.
A well told, rather gossipy memoir, full of details from primary sources. It does ramble a bit here & there and goes off on the occasional tangent about other courtesans. No great in depth detail here but plenty of information about the women & their times.
A well told, rather gossipy memoir, full of details from primary sources. It does ramble a bit here & there and goes off on the occasional tangent about other courtesans. No great in depth detail here but plenty of information about the women & their times.
childofmongreldogs's review
2.0
It felt like too much of the book was devoted to the men involved in their lives. A bit disappointed because I thought it would have a bit more information on what place in society courtesans had.
sarawrites's review
4.0
Good exploration of some of the most famous British courtesans - a couple of them are very helpful if you're researching the demimondaine in the Georgian, Regency, or Victorian periods. Written in a relatively engaging style.
lizinthelibrary's review
5.0
I found this book on the library shelves and picked it up on a whim. It is a portray of the "long 19th century" (mid 1700s to late 1800s) in England, the demi-monde, and five of the most famous courtesans. The courtesans overlap each other but not my much. The demi-monde was the "half-world" filled with courtesans, prostitutes, mistresses and other less-than-respectable women. In a time and a society that offered few options to women, these women owned their own property, made their own choices, and were independant in a way that could not be said of the majority of their gender. In addition to the detailed portrayals of the five courtesans, there was a great deal of information on the sex trade, courtesans, mistresses, and sexuality in general. Hickman did an excellent job of conveying history and rich detail to keep the reader interested and the material from being dry. I was completely engrossed in this book and highly recommend it to history fans, women's studies or history fans.
For a fun pairing, watch the movie The Duchess (starring Keira Knightly) immediately after reading this. I did so and found it interesting to see the same time period (even some of the same people) portrayed from the other side of teh coin.
For a fun pairing, watch the movie The Duchess (starring Keira Knightly) immediately after reading this. I did so and found it interesting to see the same time period (even some of the same people) portrayed from the other side of teh coin.