The French Consul's Wife: Memoirs of Celeste De Chabrillan in Gold-Rush Australia translated by Patricia Clancy and Jeanne Allen

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book edges and corners. Red pen mark on inside acknowledgement page.

A former Parisian courtesan, circus performer and dancer, Celeste de Chabrillan scandalised Melbourne society when she arrived in 1854 as the wife of the French Consul. These memoirs give a vivid firsthand account of the two-and-a-half years she spent in gold-rush Victoria.

Celeste's arrival in Melbourne was preceded by the publication of her memoirs describing her illegitimate birth, miserable adolescence and celebrity career as a courtesan, bareback rider and polka dancer. As a result, she was dubbed the consul's 'harlot spouse' and ostracised by society.

Despite this, Celeste did not avoid the public gaze and continued to employ her literary talents. Her memoirs are of a life spent in the village of St Kilda, the diplomatic and government house circle and the Ballarat goldfields. Her descriptions of a public hanging, Governor Hotham's 'beer ball' and her own Ball for the Victims of Crimea reveal her as a woman of great energy and wilfulness. (back cover)