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A review by jenjanet
Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century by Katie Hickman
3.0
I wanted to read this book originally because I was interested in the subject matter. The subject was very fascinating, and delves into the lives of 5 specific courtesans living in England and France. Through those 5 examples, the author gives a lot of background information about what it was like to live in that world and time period.
There are a lot of details about the money they spent, and their lovers/patrons which I enjoyed and I definitely felt that I learned a lot.
However I gave it 3 stars, because I felt that the writing was hard to follow at times for someone who does not know a lot about English and French history. The author assumed the reader is already quite educated about this, and as I was not, I ended up googling a lot of things. The author also uses a lot of French words to describe things but then doesn't really explain them further and at times, I did not understand what she meant. (I never studied French). It is not a difficult read otherwise; I got the idea. But it was a bit frustrating that the author assumed so much of the average reader.
The writing also goes off on many tangents that may not completely serve the story, or at least, were too lengthy.
Overall I don't feel there are many books on this subject or these specific women - therefore it's a great read. If you want to learn more about history it's also fantastic. The lives of these women were fascinating to learn about and it's cool that so much of their stories survived from written letters and diaries of those around them, and their own diaries. I would have actually liked learning more about how the author wrote this book, what research she did etc. I wish she had talked about that a bit - I assume she read many diaries and letters from these courtesans and their friends and that process would be fascinating to learn about.
There are a lot of details about the money they spent, and their lovers/patrons which I enjoyed and I definitely felt that I learned a lot.
However I gave it 3 stars, because I felt that the writing was hard to follow at times for someone who does not know a lot about English and French history. The author assumed the reader is already quite educated about this, and as I was not, I ended up googling a lot of things. The author also uses a lot of French words to describe things but then doesn't really explain them further and at times, I did not understand what she meant. (I never studied French). It is not a difficult read otherwise; I got the idea. But it was a bit frustrating that the author assumed so much of the average reader.
The writing also goes off on many tangents that may not completely serve the story, or at least, were too lengthy.
Overall I don't feel there are many books on this subject or these specific women - therefore it's a great read. If you want to learn more about history it's also fantastic. The lives of these women were fascinating to learn about and it's cool that so much of their stories survived from written letters and diaries of those around them, and their own diaries. I would have actually liked learning more about how the author wrote this book, what research she did etc. I wish she had talked about that a bit - I assume she read many diaries and letters from these courtesans and their friends and that process would be fascinating to learn about.