the sordid world of Jane Austen

[sergebroom]

Last week, Sue found an interesting photo from 1996's movie Emma for her blog entry about friends and lovers. It was interesting because the photo was from a French site, where Emma was referred to as an entremetteuse. One of the meanings of the word is intermediary, which I guess could apply to Emma's matchmaking activities. Another definition though is a tad less positive, as it describes someone who acts as the facilitator of a sexual liaison between two other parties. Have you ever seen the movie Gigi? It's about a 16-year-old girl being trained by her grandmother to become a man's mistress. Gigi's granny thus is an entremetteuse.

The sordid world of Jane Austen...

Comments

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Or the practical world of the Francophone...

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Practical, eh? How diplomatically you put this.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Diplomatic, moi?

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Oui, oui, mon ami.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Je ne le crois pas.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

What you're discussing here is the demimonde, the women who flourish around the edges of the aristocracy but are not part of it. And yes, it was often a "family business"; after all, who better to train a courtesan than another courtesan? There's some very detailed discussion of it in Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January mysteries, the first one of which is A Free Man of Color.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

"...What you're discussing here is the demimonde..."

Yes and no. I was really using Gigi's demimonde status and her relationship with her grandmother as an example of what an entremetteuse is involved in. Still, after reading your response, I did further research - meaning that I dug out my trusty Petit Robert dictionnary, which I bought in my college days(1). Its definition of the word referred me to maquerelle(2), whose definition is indeed that of an entremetteuse, but one who operates in the rather seedy corners of Society. In other words, a maquerelle is a pimp. The definition also took me to the proxénète, who does the same thing, but in the loftier heights of the world, dealing with what in the old days would have been courtesans.

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(1) That'd be circa 1975, thus before Star Wars and before disco.

(2) Its male equivalent would be maquereau.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

By the way, those Barbara Hambly mysteries sound interesting.

[redrose3125.livejournal.com]

They are very yummy; I read about 5 of them last year.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Would you recommend reading them in the order in which they were written?

[redrose3125.livejournal.com]

I am all out of order, and it doesn't bother me much. There is some character development over the series, (frex, the relationship between January's sister and her patron), but nothing from the later books spoils the earlier books.

[tania-c.livejournal.com]

I like to think that Jane remains popular because she observed and documented them honestly. Jane was always polite, but not always nice.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Definitely. And, when she has Emma make that nasty comment to Miss Bates, she reminds us that words can hurt as much if not more than sticks and stones.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

By the way, I hope that my joke, which was based on an extreme absurdity, didn't come across as an insult against Austen.

[tania-c.livejournal.com]

Heavens no. I was just trying to think of something worthwhile to add to the conversation. And for some reason the word amanuensis ended up stuck in my head, so I figured I'd add that it's entirely likely Jane is making a point about Emma and her actions, delivering a double entendre/backhanded compliment/some other good phrase that is still escaping me.

You know, we haven't had an update on Sue's knee and the critters in awhile. Something for you to think on...

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Emmanuensis?
"Amanuensis, Serge."
Oh.
Nevermind.

That being said, Sue usually doesn't limp unless she's been running around the house like crazy for too long. And her knee does bother her if she sits in certain positions for too long. I've been bugging her to do her therapy more frquently so hopefully all of this'll stop being a problem.

As for the critters... Their life is a living hell. Sleeping on soft cushions on the couch. Sleeping on the bed with us. Sleeping at our feet when we're working at our computers. We're terrible, I say, terrible!