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| Courtesans | 
 enlarge | Author: Katie Hickman
Publisher: HarperPerennial
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £8.98 (100%)
New (9) Collectible (1) from £0.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 99404
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 363
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0007113927
Dewey Decimal Number: 941
EAN: 9780007113927
ASIN: 0007113927
Publication Date: September 3, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Photographs Available upon request. ***Same Day Shipping From the U.K. For Orders Received Before 4pm*** (116)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
A sparkling overview of the courtesan's world. June 1, 2008
This is a great book to introduce you to the world of the courtesans & the demi-monde. If, like me, you have read about individual courtesans before, this book will provide some understanding of the background & social mores which made the existence of these women possible. On the other hand, if this is your first foray into the demi-monde, it is a good way to get to know this very complicated world. But you need to put your 21st century feminist principles firmly to one side, if you are to view these women as they were seen (& how they wished to be seen) by thier contemporaries. I particularly liked the fact that the writer didn't dwell too much on the ultimate demise of these women, as I have found some other biographers tended to. As if they had somehow got the ultimate come-uppence for their lives of dissipation! You only have to read about the deaths of Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire or Mary Wollstonecraft to know that disease & death were particualrly nasty back then. My only disappointment was that there were no photos or portraits in my book, but then it was an old copy that I got for a bargain price. Other good reads on this subjest are the 'Courtesans Revenenge' & biographies of Emma Hamilton or Perdita Robinson.
An excellent read, but.... July 9, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book as an excellent read, but am not sure that I really agree with the author's (and some reviewers here) opinion that these women were independent, 'proto-feminists' who could be role models for us today. For all their beauty, glamour, money etc etc these women were, at heart, prostitutes, utterly dependant on men to whom they sold their bodies for money. Yes they maintained a kind of freedom in avoiding the patriarchal power of marriage, but they weren't any less defined by men, or any more able to construct their own lifestyles or self-identities, other than in what would be sexually-enticing for the men they needed to survive.
Most of them weren't married, not because they chose to be 'single', but because they weren't accepted in 'polite' society, an alienation which is played down quite a lot in the book. Similarly there's a lot of talk about their sexual independance, but while they were women who valued themselves, can someone be said to be independant when actually they are socially-ostracised, and have to sleep with men because that's their 'career' and only source of income?
It seems to me to be a little disturbing that there is a bit of trend for glamourising prostitution (Belle du Jour, for example, as a modern take on the same story), when beneath the money and the allure lies what appears to me to be a sad story of female victims dressing up their own dependancy as freedom.
Despite that (!), I did enjoy this book, in the way that I would enjoy a light novel, and there's undoubtedly a sense of survival about these women that is admirable. The shopping too is mouth-watering, but for all the women who raved about this for the 'independance' of the protagonists: be honest, is this really what we would want for our daughters?
A Delightful Romp June 26, 2006
12 out of 14 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.
 An absolute delight January 16, 2006
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Like one of the reviewers below, I confess up front to being a junkie for the Restoration period up until the Victorians. So this book - all about racy women in great frocks - was always going to be right up my street. I read it over Xmas with the flu, and thank god I had it to distract me from feeling rotten. It was a wonderful read with lots of period detail and great real-life stories about a set of women who trod a very difficult/different path to the norms of the time. They didn't always make it work, but by god they had a great time trying! I missed it when I finished it, so I'm off to see if there's anything about this period that I haven't read yet...
 Sloppy research August 13, 2005
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
Well, it's an entertaining enough read but don't rely on it too much for historical accuracy. Not when Hickman cites "Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion in the Year 1764-65" as a primary source on three separate occasions, even though "Diary etc." was written in the 1920s, as fiction, by a young Magdalen King-Hall. It hasn't been considered genuine since it was first published. It really doesn't say a great deal for the standard of Hickman's research.
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