Susan Griffin. - The book of the courtesans : a catalogue of their virtues

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The Book of theCourtesans

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A l s o b y Su s a n G r i f f i n

Like the Iris of an Eye

Women and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her

Rape: The Politics of Consciousness

Pornography and Silence

Made from This Earth

Unremembered Country

A Chorus of Stones

The Eros of Everyday Life

Bending Home

What Her Body Thought

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The Book of theCourtesans

A C a t a l o g u e o f

T h e i r

Vi r t u e s

Susan Griffin

B r o a d w a y B o o k s N e w Y o r k

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A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2001 by Broadway Books.

the book of the courtesans. Copyright 2001 by Susan Griffin. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or

mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, address Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.,

1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

Broadway Books titles may be purchased for business or promotional use or for special sales. For information, please write to: Special Markets Department, Random House, Inc., 280 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017.

printed in the united states of america

broadway books and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Visit our website at www.broadwaybooks.com

First trade paperback edition published 2002.

Art credits appear on page 271.

Designed by Chris Welch

Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Griffin, Susan.

The book of the courtesans: a catalogue of

their virtues/Susan Griffin.1st ed.

p.

cm.

1. CourtesansHistory.

2. CourtesansBiography.

3. MistressesHistory.

4. MistressesBiography.

I. Title.

HQ1122.G75

306.74'2'09dc21

2001025768

ISBN 0-7679-0451-6

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

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f o r O d e t t e M e y e r s

h e r m e m o r y

a n d f o r f r i e n d s h i p a m o n g w o m e n

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Acknowledgments

L e t m e e s p e c i a l l y thank Leonard Pitt, who has been generous with his time and his extensive library on nineteenth-century France. I am also grateful to the late Odette Meyers, not only for her friendship, but for teaching me so much about the French language and French

culture as well as for having what Leonard Pitt has called such a belle intelligence. My dear friend Edith Sorel has provided guidance, wisdom, invaluable knowledge, and her brilliant wit. Odile Hellier of the Village Voice Bookstore in Paris was helpful, as she is with so many writers. The Baron du Cassagne kindly gave me several interviews as well as an indispensable perspective on events in the nineteenth century. The Baroness Liliane de Rothschild was kindly helpful with reference to Marie Duplessis. Let me again thank Marlotte Reinharez for accompanying me to the Chteau du

Monte Cristo and Raphael Balmes for accompanying me to the Muse

Gace devoted to Marie Duplessis. Carol Spindel helped me with more

than one difficulty in Paris. Daniel Meyers, too, has been helpful to me in Paris. Thanks to Madeleine Barcheuska for sending me a tape of Sarah

Bernhardt playing La Dame aux Camlias. Thanks also to Lea Mende

lovitz for her helpful knowledge of Paris. Thanks also to Alberto Manguel for the reading list he gave me, his generous insights, and for helping me at the Bibliothque Historique de la Ville de Paris. Thanks to Randy Conner for his marvelous manuscript on Baudelaire and Jeanne Duval and for his suggestions. Thank you to Joanna Bernstein for her encouragement and for giving me an invaluable reading list. I thank the Thtre de la Ville, Grif_0767904516_3p_fm_r1.qxd 6/25/02 1:32 PM Page viii

v i i i

A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

which was once the Thtre Sarah Bernhardt, for allowing me to see

Sarahs dressing room, and Micheline Boudet for her book La Fleur du Mal.

Margot Hackett supplied me with two books difficult to find, and

her wry sensibility gave me courage. I thank Moira Roth for reading bits of the work in progress and for her encouragingly whimsical perceptions. I thank Anita Barrows for her friendship, her reading of the manuscript, her generous and fine mind. Daidie Donnelly, too, has been a

wonderful friend in this period, reading my manuscript with sensitive,

delicately intelligent encouragement. I thank Jodie Evans for her pas

sionate friendship, her encouragement, and profound understanding of

this book. Sandra Sharpe, too, has been a wonderful friend in this pe

riod, laughing with me at the right moments, making me laugh at the

right moments, reading and listening with great perceptiveness. I thank Bokara Legendre, too, for her friendship and help.

Thank you to Beverly Allen for immediately grasping what this work

is about on the deepest level and for her helpful knowledge of the Italian Renaissance and Venice. Thanks to Gudrun Icosimo for her kind

ness in Venice. Thanks to Georgina Morley for a day and evening in the

courtesans Paris. Thank you to Joe Wemple for his friendship, his playful encouragement, as well as several helpful references. Thanks again to Isabel Villaud and Christian Roy-Camille for their help with Marie Duplessis. Thank you to Monique Saigal for helping me extend my research

into a wonderful cyberspace network of French scholars. John Levy

helped me find a valuable reference, as did Dan Church, Jim Allen, and

Yvonne Bayer at Vanderbilt University Library. Lise Huerelle helped me

from time to time with French translation.

Let me thank my daughter, Chloe Andrews, for asking about this

book and listening, for encouraging the work and responding with great

clarity to what she read. Many thanks to my editor, Lauren Marino, for

her intelligent reading, warm encouragement, and perceptive editing; to her assistant, Cate Tynan, for managing so many details; and to the

books designer, Chris Welch, for her beautiful work. And thank you to

my agent, Katinka Matson, for her care, understanding, and humor.

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Contents

P r o l o g u e

A Legacy of Virtues 1

C h a p t e r O n e

Timing 1 9

What good timing is and why a courtesan needed it

The Way She

;

Danced: The story of Mogadors life and how she danced her way to

fame and fortune in nineteenth-century Paris

Her Surprise:

;

The surprise that Cora Pearl served for dessert

Her Blue Dress:

;

The importance of fashion to courtesans and of courtesans to fashionthrough the examples of Zolas famous character Nana and the real

Coco Chanel

Flirtation ( t h e f i r s t e r o t i c s tat i o n ) 4 7