Hollis Clayson

bookshelves: winter-20132014, art-forms, published-2003, e-book, france, paris, nonfiction, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts
Recommended to ☯Bettie☯ by: Eleni
Recommended for: 3Ms and friends
Read from February 10 to 11, 2014

Free download here

Dedication: FOR JAMES
and to the memory of
JAMES EDWARD CLAYSON, S R

Opening: The existence of prostitution on a scale so widespread and obvious that it alarmed contemporaries was a distinctive and distinguishing feature of nineteenth-century Parisian culture.

Of course the temptation will be to fill up this thought-box with nowt but the scrumptious images and I promise not to spoil your future enjoyment, however there will be some that I can't resist showing.

'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' by Picasso. And we know where those two heads come from, don't we children. HAH, life is fun.

Extract from page 14:

In a Figaro column, Zola claimed to find adultery rampant among all bourgeois women: "Among the bourgeoisie, a young girl is kept pure until her marriage; only after the marriage does the effect of her spoiled surroundings and poor education throw her into the arms of a love: it is not prostitution, it is adultery, the difference is only in the words.

I find that quite poignant as I am also reading The Kill at the moment and the adultery is manifold, and where no physical outcome is apparent there is still the tension involved with wild flirtations and teasing more than some can mentally cope with.

++++

What is this sleep thing people mention? I curled up with this book and immersed myself in Zola, Belle Epoque, suspicious professions, and the extraordinary tale of Rolla, Alfred de Musset, the picture, Henri Gervex and the censorious Beaux-Arts administration. I give you a taste of Henri Gervex:

Rolla 1878

A portrait of Marie Clotilde de Faret Legrand

La visite imprévue

La Toilette

Cafe Scene (1877)… (más)