Memoirs of a Courtesan in Nineteenth-Century Paris Read Free

herself, even to her own detri-ment. But when she was crossed, she could be vengeful, as with a flighty woman who pretended to be her dear friend but tried to steal her lover.
    Céleste doggedly set up a plan to expose the woman for what she was: a double-crosser. Such actions were never undertaken out of mean-ness but out of her sense of justice. When one of her more experienced courtesan friends who had become bitter and cynical resorted to cruelty toward others, Céleste was appalled and in the end rejected this woman who seemed to be such a bad influence on her as well.
    On the other hand, the memoirs also reveal a woman who seems candidly shallow and frivolous. As she relates some of the more tragic moments of her life, she does not hesitate to interrupt their retelling to describe at length some opulent setting that she seems to admire and be drawn to. Is this the strategy of a writer who wishes to relieve the narrative tension with a lighter moment, or is this a genuine expression of attraction to glittery display? In view of her inexperience as a writer and her evident fascination with pomp and ostentation, it is more likely that the latter is correct. It is necessary to remember that this woman was still just a young impressionable girl, and the more mature woman recalling her life is keenly aware of her past weaknesses. In her memoirs the soon-xiii

    Translator’s Introduction
    to-be Mme de Chabrillan does not hesitate to paint herself accurately.
    For example, when her lover the Italian duke puts a lovely little surrey at her disposal, Céleste parades up and down the fashionable Champs-Elysées to show off her good fortune. Similarly, when Lionel gives her a carriage driven by a coachman dressed in English style, she is so dazzled by it, she shows it off to her other lover Richard who, needless to say, is not impressed. The memoirist remarks, ‘ Oh, dreadful flightiness! My first reaction was one of vanity. I nodded to him and signaled for him to come closer. But my carriage did not seem to please him as much as it pleased me. He walked away gloomily.’
    Her impetuous and fiery nature, however, was the catalyst that determined much of Céleste’s life. Many of Mogador’s decisions were made irrationally, based on whim and desire. She would regret many of her hasty decisions, none more than the one to enter a brothel and have her name entered in the register of prostitutes. She wished to get away from an intolerable home life (which she left at fifteen because her mother’s live-in boyfriend was making sexual advances toward her and once even tried to rape her) and avoid a forced marriage to a dull laborer; based on the conversations she had with a young prostitute, the easy escape appeared to be with these well-dressed women and their glamorous lives.
    She had not been at the house twenty-four hours when she regretted her choice. Unfortunately her fate was sealed.
    By the time Céleste turned sixteen, prostitution was a well-organized profession. The women were supervised closely—on the streets by the police, and in bordellos by the madams. The customers could avail themselves of a publication that served as a ‘ guide to the gentleman.’
    The guide instructed as to prices, places, and specialties. In spite of fears of infections, the recruiting of women was flourishing. The only way a woman could have her name removed from the register of prostitutes was to prove that she had gainful and secure employment. A few times Céleste tried to get her name removed from the register, but the positions she held in the theater or at the hippodrome did not, in the eyes of the police, constitute enough security. When she gave up in this endeavor, she refused to return each year to reregister as the law required, but it meant that she lived in fear of the police, a fear great enough to drive her to attempt suicide rather than face the shame of being arrested.
    In keeping with her generous nature, Céleste wanted to