Английская Википедия:Cocotte (prostitute)

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Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:About

Файл:Bertall - cocotte.jpg
Une cocotte by Bertall from The comedy of our time: studies in pencil and pen, Plon, Paris, vol. 2, 1875.

Cocottes (or coquettes) were high class prostitutes (courtesans) in France during the Second Empire and the Belle Époque.[1] They were also known as demi-mondes and grandes horizontales.Шаблон:Sfn Cocotte was originally a term of endearment for small children, but was used as a term for elegant prostitutes from the 1860s.Шаблон:Sfn The term was also used in Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany from the turn of the 20th century (Kokotte).Шаблон:Sfn

Overview

For some women, becoming a cocotte was also a way to achieve financial comfort before settling down in marriage. Some managed their fortune, others died in misery, others finally, like Sarah Bernhardt, who in the beginning was a cocotte, became adulated actresses.[2]

For a rich man of the period, keeping a cocotte was seen as a symbol of his status and virility. Cocottes were elegant, fashionable and extravagant, the papers reported on their clothing, parties and affairs.[3]

Several authors of the 19th century wrote about cocottes,Шаблон:Sfn for example Émile Zola with Nana. This novel describes the life and tragic fate of a street-walker who rises to become a cocotte, and whose ways lead to ruin the powerful men she meets.[4]

Famous cocottes include Cora Pearl (1835-1886) (her patrons included Prince Napoleon and the Duke of Morny); Laure Hayman (1851-1932) (Paul Bourget, King of Greece, Prince Karageorgevich and Prince Karl of Fürstenberg).Шаблон:Sfn Several mansions of Paris were built for "cocottes", such as that of la Païva on the Champs-Élysées.[5]

References

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Bibliography