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The Pretty Women of Paris
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 21, 2012
Not being in the market for information about prostitutes I have no idea if guides like this still exist in the 21st century, but I have a mental image of some tattered street newspaper being hawked near downtown hotels in San Francisco. This is the translation of a book written in the mid 1800s and sold to, presumably, wealthy men looking for female...uh...diversion Companionship, shall we say. It's kind of the Montgomery-Ward catalog of upscale prostitutes. It also includes a listing of many of the houses of ill repute in Paris.
I really hadn't intended to read it, but I found it absolutely fascinating. Each entry always includes a physical description of the woman.
But the descriptions are sometimes absolutely poetic.
...her backside is remarkable for size and shape and we may declare without hesitation that she possesses one of the handsomest bums in Paris.
...she is thin as a hurdle, with rough skin and insignificant countenance. She is pale, with light hair and blue eyes. Looks well when dressed as a man but undressed is like a wooden doll -- very long, very hard, with a bust like a plank and an arse like a rabbit.
In addition to the comments regarding the women, I also increased my vocabulary. "Pelf" is a term for ill-gotten riches. And I learned the Banting System was developed in 1863 by W. Banting as a diet for reducing superfluous fat...and it sounds VERY MUCH like the Atkins diet. The dietary recommended was the use of butcher-meat principally, and abstinence from beer, farinaceous food, and vegetables.
And while you may have thought the Indians cornered the market on sexual pleasure with the Kama Sutra, you may not have heard of Arteno's Postures, which is Italy's own version, I Modi or The Sixteen Pleasures. These were engravings and--surprise, surprise--were destroyed the Catholic church.
Spoilsports.
I really hadn't intended to read it, but I found it absolutely fascinating. Each entry always includes a physical description of the woman.
But the descriptions are sometimes absolutely poetic.
...her backside is remarkable for size and shape and we may declare without hesitation that she possesses one of the handsomest bums in Paris.
...she is thin as a hurdle, with rough skin and insignificant countenance. She is pale, with light hair and blue eyes. Looks well when dressed as a man but undressed is like a wooden doll -- very long, very hard, with a bust like a plank and an arse like a rabbit.
In addition to the comments regarding the women, I also increased my vocabulary. "Pelf" is a term for ill-gotten riches. And I learned the Banting System was developed in 1863 by W. Banting as a diet for reducing superfluous fat...and it sounds VERY MUCH like the Atkins diet. The dietary recommended was the use of butcher-meat principally, and abstinence from beer, farinaceous food, and vegetables.
And while you may have thought the Indians cornered the market on sexual pleasure with the Kama Sutra, you may not have heard of Arteno's Postures, which is Italy's own version, I Modi or The Sixteen Pleasures. These were engravings and--surprise, surprise--were destroyed the Catholic church.
Spoilsports.
March 2, 2016
Torn about how to rate this, so i went with four starts. A few thoughts:
This is an actual historical document, a guide to Parisian courtesans and brothels. Some of the text is clearly speculative or fictionalized, but it's not written as a piece of erotica--it's a tourist guide.
Be prepared to wade through a lot of misogyny, bigotry of all sorts, and snide attempts at humor. Be prepared to read a lot of drollery making fun of queer women working as prostitutes. Be prepared to feel sad that in many cases, this is the only remaining evidence of these women's lives.
That said, if you read it with an analytical and academic mind, there are a lot of fascinating stories of independent, determined women making a living for themselves well outside the 19th ceutury prescriptive roles of wife/mother/whore. Yes, the women described herein are selling sex, but they are also clearly successful or hopeful actresses, singers, ballet dancers, real estate speculators, landladies, artists, writers, journalists, and more.
I also get the idea that there had to have been a similar sort of guide (or several) for male prostitutes and "molly houses," though no specific mention is made in any of the entries or attendent instroductory remarks. Allusions are often made to male counterparts in the sex trade though. That'd be an interesting book to read.
This is an actual historical document, a guide to Parisian courtesans and brothels. Some of the text is clearly speculative or fictionalized, but it's not written as a piece of erotica--it's a tourist guide.
Be prepared to wade through a lot of misogyny, bigotry of all sorts, and snide attempts at humor. Be prepared to read a lot of drollery making fun of queer women working as prostitutes. Be prepared to feel sad that in many cases, this is the only remaining evidence of these women's lives.
That said, if you read it with an analytical and academic mind, there are a lot of fascinating stories of independent, determined women making a living for themselves well outside the 19th ceutury prescriptive roles of wife/mother/whore. Yes, the women described herein are selling sex, but they are also clearly successful or hopeful actresses, singers, ballet dancers, real estate speculators, landladies, artists, writers, journalists, and more.
I also get the idea that there had to have been a similar sort of guide (or several) for male prostitutes and "molly houses," though no specific mention is made in any of the entries or attendent instroductory remarks. Allusions are often made to male counterparts in the sex trade though. That'd be an interesting book to read.
March 28, 2019
I had first read about that book in a Japanese stamp exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, where I was informed that the Surrealists were making great use of it. Includes lively and highly creative descriptions of std's, bizarreries and fetiches of the prostitutes in Parisian brothels. Bordel!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews