LADY WALKER THE COURTESAN and EXCERPT from THE MISTRESS - HISTORIES MYTHS and INTERPRETATIONS of the OTHER WOMAN by VICTORIA GRIFFIN

posted on Find A Grave, this photo shows Lady in her glorious bed

with what looks to be fur pillows.  

She's in the style of one of the Grand Horizontals of France.

Victoria Griffin's book THE MISTRESS - Histories, Myths, and Interpretations of "The Other Woman" strives to define the word "Mistress" as well as other labels for women such as Concubine. 

Excerpt: The word 'mistress', it was suggested on a radio program recently, carries risque connotations in a way that the more modern, neutral word 'partner' doesn't.  Partner tends in any case to refer to the other half of a couple, and not usually to the extra third of a threesome.  Likewise 'lover' or girlfriend' though they could denote the possibility of an extant wife, do not necessarily do so. 'Mistress', on the other hand, always sounds illicit, as well as rather luxurious.  There are those who think of the word as old-fashioned, though I don't see why it should be considered to be any more out of date than 'wife' or 'husband'.  In all three cases, the roles may have been modified in recent years, while the names remain the same.  It has also been pointed out that there is no male equivalent of 'mistress."

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I note that while there is a search for that equivalent, I have used the term mantress here at Mistress Manifesto...

AN ARTICLE ABOUT CONTEMPORARY MISTRESS VICTORIA GRIFFIN AND CORA PEARL

A very well written and thought out article on Victoria Griffin which mentions Cora Pearl, also a serial mistress, and the differences between the Courtesans of the 19th century and the mistresses of today. Linking to a 1999 article in The Independent.

DEFINING MISTRESS - VICTORIA GRIFFIN QUOTES PENELOPE ORTH

"Penelope Orth, in her book published in the early 1970s about contemporary American mistresses, draws up the following definition: "A mistress is a single woman, divorced, widowed, or never married, who is having an enduring affair with a married man who may support her but who today more frequently subsidises her or merely improves her standard of living. The three essential ingredients of a lover-mistress relationship are that it lasts, that marriage is not realistically expected, and that the man assumes some financial responsibility."

VICTORIA GRIFFIN Quotation

"The best mistresses are the ones we know nothing about." Victoria Griffin

VICTORIA GRIFFIN - SELF CONFESSED MISTRESS AND INTERPRETATIONS OF THE OTHER WOMAN : SEPTEMBER 2011 MISTRESS OF THE MONTH

VICTORIA GRIFFIN, a self confessed mistress, wrote this book, and it's a fascinating read, that I highly recommend. She goes into the mistress archetype and ancient Greece and profiles women she feels fit the "mistress type."

I'm linking to a good article in Heloise, United Kingdom, about Victoria in which she speaks about her own experience as a mistress. She seems to truly enjoy the mistress lifestyle and she has made sense of herself and her world.