Celeste de Chabrillan, former courtesan and widow of the first French Consul to Melbourne, became the most prolific female stage writer in nineteenth-century France. Forever haunted by her scandalous past, Celeste fought to hold her place in an artistic world dominated by men. Courtesan and Countess tells the story not only of her struggle as a creative artist to survive and earn a living, but also of her fascinating life at the centre of the bohemian circles of Paris, surrounded by friends such as Alexandre Dumas pere, Georges Bizet and Prince Napoleon. Courtesan and Countess paints a portrait of a remarkable woman and of the turbulent world of Paris during the Belle Epoque. Lost for more than eighty years until discovered by the authors in the attic of a French country manor, these are the unpublished and final set of memoirs from Celeste de Chabrillan.

Content: pt. 1 The Two Names -- 1.Three Hostile Encounters -- 2.Return to the Theatre -- 3.Staging The Gold Robbers -- 4.A New Home in the Country -- 5.An Arrangement with Desmarest -- 6.A New Protector -- 7.The Sisters of France in the War -- 8.The Horrors of the Siege -- 9.Capitulation and Civil War -- 10.Sheltering War Orphans -- 11.Return to Le Vesinet -- 12.Shadows from the Past -- pt. 2 Little Diary of the End of my Life -- 13.Taking Refuge in Asnieres -- 14.A Career Summed up from a Hospital Bed -- 15.Final Days.Text in English; unpublished memoirs originally written in French. Includes bibliographical references (pages 266-272) and index.