Memoirs of a Courtesan in Nineteenth-Century Paris Read Free Page A

adopt her maid Marie’s baby girl when Marie died soon after childbirth. As a prostitute, however, Céleste was not allowed to adopt the baby. She had to xiv

    Translator’s Introduction
    settle for the title of godmother. It was not until a few days before her marriage to Lionel that, with the help of a powerful friend, Prince Napoléon (who was rumored to have been her lover), number  and the name Céleste Vénard were erased from the register of prostitutes.
    Mogador’s impetuousness also accounts for some of the more melo-dramatic moments of her life, at least as she describes them. Her affair with Lionel generated many of them. Like a character in a boulevard drama, a fiercely jealous Céleste gets rid of a rival by storming into her lover’s apartment during his absence and ordering the stunned servants to pack up the belongings of the interim mistress to have them taken to a hotel. And when confronting Lionel about this mistress, she grabs a knife and stabs her lover, then stabs herself in the chest and decorously swoons.
    A notable significance of these memoirs is their disclosure of a spe-cific class of nineteenth-century French society from the point of view of one of its members. The year that Céleste received her number, the chief editor at the Figaro coined the term lorette, a euphemism for ‘ prostitute’ that Balzac quickly found useful. To become a courtesan, the lorette must have one main lover; that is, the woman must be talked about as the mistress of
    , even though she might discreetly have other lovers. And the difference between the two types of women was formally recognized in this subculture of demimondaines. For example, some salons did not admit lorettes, but they did courtesans. Céleste learned that lesson very early. In the days when she was still innocent enough to believe in love, she became enamored of a young doctor named Adolphe, whom she met when she was still at the brothel. She had not revealed her situation to him, having been told he did not frequent such women, nor had he bothered to let her know he had a mistress, Louisa Aumont, until he took Céleste to a ball at which Mlle Aumont was present. Outraged that Céleste’s kind of woman would be admitted, Mlle Aumont demanded her eviction. Young Céleste found out not only that it is quite customary for a man to have several mistresses, but also about the hierarchy among kept women. As she explains in her memoirs, this event began a process of hardening of her heart. The mortification she suffered would not soon be forgotten.
    Ever since her mother had taken her to the theater when she was a child, Céleste had dreamed of becoming a stage actress. She never gave up on her dream, although it appears, when she finally was given some acting roles, she did not have much talent. Her practical side and her desire for beautiful things led her to pursue more realistic means xv

    Translator’s Introduction
    to make a living. Many young women sought out popular dance halls to meet young men for romance and maybe to obtain monetary support. It was at one of these dance halls that Céleste’s path to becoming a courtesan began.
    Present-day chic Avenue Montaigne was then called Allée des Veuves, Widow’s Alley. Because of the lack of street lighting, it was a likely place for trysts and other clandestine meetings. In spite of this reputation, in
     Charles Mabille, a dance teacher, opened an outdoor cafe, then a dance hall that became popular with working young men and women.
    Thirty years later, Mabille’s sons improved the locale and turned the Bal Mabille into one of the favorite meeting places for lovers until it closed in . It had gardens, harbors, swings, merry-go-rounds, games, and of course a dance floor under the trees, where new dances were introduced to the sounds of an orchestra composed of candidates for the conservatory. After closing time the young men would wait outside for their