FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In this book, Virginia Rounding brings to life the glittering world of nineteenth-century Paris and its most distinguished - and declasse - inhabitants." "In the reign of Emperor Napoleon III, the pampered demimonde became almost indistinquishable from the haut monde, with mythical reputations growing up around its most alluring and favored celebrities. Grandes Horizontales examines the lives of four of the era's best-known courtesans, providing a provocative look into the parlors and boudoirs of the women whose lives became legends." "Marie Duplessis became the prototype of the virtuous courtesan when Alexandre Dumas fils portrayed her as Marguerite Gautier in La Dame aux camelias. Apollonie Sabatier, known as La Presidente, put men of letters and other arts at ease amidst the gracious manners and bawdy talk of her salon and was immortalized by sculptor August Clesinger and poet Charles Baudelaire." Through prejudiced eyes, the Russian Jew La Paiva appeared intent on preying on rich young men of Paris. Covetous onlookers resented her ability to amass and display great wealth, most notably in the design and building of her opulent hotel in the Champs Elysees. The English beauty who called herself Cora Pearl was another "foreign threat," with her athletic physique, sixty horses, and ability "to make bored men laugh," including Prince Napoleon himself.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

… Grandes Horizontales is fascinating on several counts, not least because of Rounding's description of the French and British efforts throughout the 19th century to make a systematic study of prostitution, beginning with the basic question as to whether prostitutes were born or made. — Daphne Merkin

The New Yorker

Nineteenth-century Paris was famous for its highly formalized system of prostitution. The élite of this demimonde were courtesans who entertained aristocrats, artists, and writers such as Dumas and Baudelaire. Rounding focusses on four such cocottes -- Apollonie Sabatier, Marie Duplessis, the Englishwoman Cora Pearl, and a Russian Jew known as La Païva -- paying particular attention to the legends that surrounded them. Cora Pearl was said to have had herself served up on a silver platter, decorated only with parsley; after La Païva's death, her besotted husband, a Prussian count, reportedly had her embalmed in a glass jar in his castle. Rounding presents a seductive vision of women whose talent for social, financial, and sexual machination allowed them to navigate Second Empire Paris, and whose acts of self-creation and the works of art they inspired have endured longer than the details of their lives.

Publishers Weekly

The horizontal women of the title were four of Paris's most renowned-or notorious-courtesans immediately before and during the glittering Second Empire. But anyone looking for lubricious reading will be disappointed. British translator Rounding is more interested in how these four lives reflect the place of women in 19th-century France than in the details of their erotic adventures, though we are informed of who their various protectors were-and they included some of Paris's most prominent and powerful men. Rounding's aim is to separate the real lives from the myths surrounding the women, which, she asserts, reflect stereotypes of prostitutes as depraved, even denatured, women. Yet strangely, she ends up partially confirming them-there is something almost vampiric in how the wildly ostentatious Cora Pearl and Therese Lachmann (known as La Paiva) bled men of their money to satisfy their taste for luxury. Marie Duplessis, Alexandre Dumas fils's model for La Dame aux camelias, died too young to do much harm (or to be of much interest), and La Presidente, Baudelaire's muse Apollonie Sabatier, retains an affecting dignity through her ups and downs. But Rounding's points are well taken: the men were willing dupes, proud to parade these high-priced lovelies on their arm; these men ultimately retained the power of the purse; and her four subjects were spirited, independent-minded women who rose from poverty to great heights (and, in the case of Cora Pearl, ended with a corresponding descent). Still, primarily avid students of women's studies and French cultural history will be gratified by this judicious account. (July) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

This highly readable collective biography should be welcomed by general readers interested in French culture and history. Rounding, a London-based translator and writer, introduces us to four celebrities of the demimonde, the best-known courtesans of Napoleon III's Second Empire: Marie Duplessis, Apollonie Sabatier, Blanche de Paiva, and Cora Pearl. Using personal letters, contemporary memoirs, and other writings of the time, Rounding strives to separate the actual lives of these women from the myths, legends, and stereotypes that have grown up around them. The book recaptures the glory of Second Empire Paris at its height, as the author skillfully reconstructs the lives of these women against the backdrop of the era's cultural, literary, and architectural history. She also aims to have readers understand how the lives of these courtesans both differed from and dovetailed with the lives of common prostitutes of the same period. A fascinating complement to recent books on related themes, such as Patrice Higonnet's Paris: Capital of the World and Susan Griffin's The Book of the Courtesans.-Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews