{"product_id":"9780803282735","title":"Memoirs of a Courtesan in Nineteenth-Century Paris","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen Céleste Mogador's memoirs were first published in 1854 and again in 1858, they were immediately seized and condemned as immoral and unsuitable for public consumption. For a reader in our more forgiving times, this extraordinary document offers not only a portrait of the early life of an intelligent, courageous, and infinitely intriguing Frenchwoman but also an exceedingly rare inside look at the world of the courtesans and prostitutes of nineteenth-century France.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWriting to conciliate judges and creditors, Mogador (born Céleste Venard in 1824) explains how with tenacity, wit, and audacity, she managed to escape a difficult childhood and subsequent life of prostitution to become, successively, a darling of the dance halls, a circus rider, and an actress, all the while attracting wealthy young men who vied for her favor. Although her account gives readers a peek into the rakish demimonde made famous by Verdi's opera La Traviata, its greatest value lies in its candid picture of a spunky, self-educated woman who doggedly transformed herself into an esteemed and prolific novelist and playwright, who fell in love with a count and married him, and who made her name synonymous with the bohemian life of the 1840s and 1850s in Paris.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNP - Bison Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47030744219888,"sku":"9780803282735","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780803282735_p0.jpg?v=1763739928","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780803282735","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}