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stacey42'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.
threerings's review
4.0
I don't read a lot of nonfiction, but this was both informative and entertaining. Rather than a discussion of courtesans in general, this book presents biographies of five prominent Courtesans of 'the long nineteenth century.' The women presented are always interesting characters and the author does a good job of using their lives as example of how people lived and how the demi-monde worked. I recommend it to anyone who, like me, wants to see the other side of 19th cen life.
allisonthurman's review
4.0
Light reading, at least for me - through profiles of 4 18th-19th century English courtesans the author creates a fair introduction to the history of the "demi-monde" during this time period.
sarah42783's review
3.0
A very entertaining and well-written book, part biography and part social history. My only regret here is that Hickman didn't write about late 19th/early 20th century courtesans, which would have given an interesting perspective to the book.
caidyn's review
3.0
2.5
I don't even know how to rate or review this book, but here I go with an attempt.
I'm one of those weird people who absolutely finds prostitution fascinating. I'm completely for legalizing it and all of that. Reading about it is so fascinating to me, from the early days and especially to current times. How it's changed with society and the views of it. Completely fascinating. One subject I'm woefully less knowledgeable about is courtesans. In this time, they're a step up from escorts/callgirls (the terms are interchangeable, really) and the top of the top. Have only a few clients -- I think 3-5 is the most common -- and are very expensive. It's a mix between a sugardaddy relationship and one of a girlfriend, really. Very, very odd, but so interesting.
So, I went into this wanting to know a lot about how courtesans were in the past to compare with what I know about now.
This book was more a meandering mix of specific biographies of famous courtesans of that time and random talk about how prostitution was back then, along with more focus on the clients than the women. Really, it was an odd mix that didn't completely work for me. On one hand, I learned a lot, but on the other I learned a lot about things I didn't quite want to.
Courtesans are really interesting, but I'm sure there are better books out there than this one.
I don't even know how to rate or review this book, but here I go with an attempt.
I'm one of those weird people who absolutely finds prostitution fascinating. I'm completely for legalizing it and all of that. Reading about it is so fascinating to me, from the early days and especially to current times. How it's changed with society and the views of it. Completely fascinating. One subject I'm woefully less knowledgeable about is courtesans. In this time, they're a step up from escorts/callgirls (the terms are interchangeable, really) and the top of the top. Have only a few clients -- I think 3-5 is the most common -- and are very expensive. It's a mix between a sugardaddy relationship and one of a girlfriend, really. Very, very odd, but so interesting.
So, I went into this wanting to know a lot about how courtesans were in the past to compare with what I know about now.
This book was more a meandering mix of specific biographies of famous courtesans of that time and random talk about how prostitution was back then, along with more focus on the clients than the women. Really, it was an odd mix that didn't completely work for me. On one hand, I learned a lot, but on the other I learned a lot about things I didn't quite want to.
Courtesans are really interesting, but I'm sure there are better books out there than this one.
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