Tag: demi-monde

The demi-monde in France were some of the most powerful women during their era, many of them controlling some of the most powerful men in the world.

In her book Courtesans, Katie Hickman recounts a typical evening experienced by the Parisian demi-monde, the lauded lovers who tempted the males of the upper class by their very nature, and a number of them imports from the UK. As they would take to their boxes at the Opera en grande toilette (covered in jewels) with the grave and imposing bearing of ambassadresses, Hickman notes they held court as unapologetically as the royals did.

She revels in their gumption: “I like this description very much: it connects the courtesan to one of the categories of women that most people would think she was least likely to resemble, yet it is very apt. All but forgotten now, in their own lifetimes English courtesans of the stature of Cora Pearl, Sophia Baddeley, Elizabeth Armistead, Harriette Wilson and Catherine Walters—the five women whose stories I tell in this book—were important people.”

Hickman describes them as highly cultured women—“rich, famous and, most remarkably, independent females in an era in which this was almost an impossibility.” I could certainly see each of these “semi-mythical creatures” choosing the classically beautiful Courtesan chair from Alden Parkes for a special spot in her chamber or salon!