SUSAN GRIFFIN : THE BOOK OF COURTESANS

The Book of Courtesans
A Catalogue of Their Virtues
C 2001 Susan Griffin
Broadway Books New York

Missy here: Author SUSAN GRIFFIN situates her Courtesans in their time and place - the past - and teaches us that the difference between a Courtesan and a Kept Woman (or Mistress) was that a Courtesan was not hidden.

She says that Courtesans and artists shared a world... a risque naughty world... The Courtesan was surrounded by scintillating activity...

GriffIn says that the tradition of having a Courtesan (even if you were a gay male) has disappeared but...

on page 11 we read : "Technically speaking, many women today do what courtesans did; it is quite common still for a married man to support his mistress, and a whole population of highly cultivated and elegant women serve today as escorts, call girls, and modern hetaerae. But just as surely as the role of the courtesan was created by historical conditions, she was also inextricably linked to a historical mood that had come to an end by the third decade of the last century...

Linking above to a great book review and more information (get yourself a copy of this book!) from GOODREADS online.