FROM COURTESAN TO PHILOSOPHER
[COURTESAN.]
Les confessions d’une courtisane devenue philosophe.
‘London’ and Brussels, Le Francq, 1784.
12mo, pp. [viii], 132; very occasional light spotting, else clean and crisp throughout; uncut in contemporary orange wrappers, handwritten paper label at head of spine; some light wear, but still a very good copy.
First edition (another appeared in the same year with a 'Londres et se trouve à Paris' imprint) of this anonymous novel describing the ascent (or perhaps descent) of a courtesan into the world of the philosophe.
Naturally, Émilie is of a good family but is driven to be a courtesan by love: her admirer, Mélincourt, insists on sneaking into her room during the night, ‘swearing that he would do no outrage to [her] virtue’ (trans.). This is obviously not the case: our narrator, now pregnant, is locked up in a castle belonging to a friend of her mother’s, to be sent to a convent thereafter. After miscarrying, she is able to secretly send word to Mélincourt, who rescues her and takes her to Paris, only to abandon her when the lovers accrue tremendous debts. She turns to the life of a courtesan before reflections on morals and manners – and a love of truth and candour – lead her back to a more sedate and contemplative life.
Some of our heroine’s contemplations are articulated in the second part, where she reflects on female ornament, friendship, the seductive qualities of science and the arts, natural law, the crime of adultery, and the state in which illegitimate children find themselves. Despite her doubtless busy schedule, our narrator has found the time to read Montesquieu and Puffendorf.
Gay I 659; not in Pia.
