Description
Book SynopsisThis extraordinary document and memoir offers a portrait of the early life of an intelligent, courageous and infinitely intriguing Frenchwoman - Celeste Mogador. It also presents an inside look at the world of the courtesans and prostitutes of 19th-century France.
Trade Review"From the first page, [Mogador] declares her intention to tell the real story of a courtesan's experiences. . . . Céleste's telegraphic, mostly unadorned, literary style supports her claim to authenticity—she was almost entirely uneducated, and at 15 could barely read. But it is the palpable pleasure she takes in seeing people and events clearly, even recognizing her own flaws and those of the people she loves and wishes to think well of, that gives her book the complexity of truth—the kind of complex truth we often look for in modern fiction."—
New York Times Book Review"Mogador (born Céleste Venard in 1824) was the queen of the Bal Mabille and gained her fame in Parisian dance halls and as an equestrienne, a daring circus rider, at the Hippodrome. Her life, exemplary of bohemian Paris in the 1840s and 1850s, bridges the periods of the Second Republic and the Third Empire. . . . [Mogador's memoirs] contribute to our understanding of how desire was presented and consumed in 19th-century Paris. . . . Refreshing details of daily life are everywhere in these pages, as [Mogador] tells us what was in a bouquet and what she and others wore. She recounts the feints, slights, and homage experienced at a ball, the fevers of the gambling tables, the drama of a boar hunt in the countryside on a nobleman's estate. . . . The settings of social life, high and low, in 19th-century Paris are etched in many memorable passages."—
Los Angeles TimesTable of ContentsContents: Acknowledgments Translator's Introduction 1. My Stepfather 2. The Hunter and the Hunted 3. The Lyon Insurrection 4. M. Vincent 5. Therese 6. Denise 7. The Fall 8. Effects of a Hospital Stay 9. The Bal Mabille 10. A "Queen's" Destiny 11. The Hippodrome 12. Lise's Yellow Dress 13. A Chariot Race 14. Travel Impressions 15. Acts of Desperation 16. Lise's Return 17. Dinner at the Cafe Anglais 18. Lionel 19. In the Country 20. Gust of Wind at Le Havre and Masked Ball at the Opera 21. Hooray for Reform! 22. Roulette 23. La Pepine 24. The June Insurrection 25. Chateau Life 26. Richard 27. Cholera Gives Me a Godchild 28. Dramatic Follies and Folies-Dramatiques 29. Proud Women, Passionate Men 30. London 31. Unfortunate Encounter 32. The Girl from the Provinces 33. Death Throes of a Fortune 34. To the Antipodes 35. My Law Lesson 36. The Varietes Theater 37. A Dead Woman and a Ghost 38. A Miner's Diary 39. Let My Destiny Be Done! Notes Works by Celeste de Chabrillan
