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The Courtesan and the Gigolo
- The Murders in the Rue Montaigne and the Dark Side of Empire in Nineteenth-Century Paris
- Narrated by: John Burlinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
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Publisher's summary
The intrigue began with a triple homicide in a luxury apartment building just steps from the Champs-Elyseés, in March 1887. A high-class prostitute and two others, one of them a child, had been stabbed to death - the latest in a string of unsolved murders targeting women of the Parisian demimonde.
Newspapers eagerly reported the lurid details, and when the police arrested Enrico Pranzini, a charismatic and handsome Egyptian migrant, the story became an international sensation. As the case descended into scandal and papers fanned the flames of anti-immigrant politics, the investigation became thoroughly enmeshed with the crisis-driven political climate of the French Third Republic and the rise of xenophobic right-wing movements.
Aaron Freundschuh's account of the "Pranzini Affair" recreates not just the intricacies of the investigation and the raucous courtroom trial, but also the jockeying for status among rival players - reporters, police detectives, doctors, and magistrates - who all stood to gain professional advantage and prestige. Pranzini's case provides a window into a transformational decade for the history of immigration, nationalism, and empire in France.
Published by Stanford University Press.
"An intriguing tale, told with insight...a good read about the great city in a time of transition." - John Merriman Yale University
"This well-reasoned analysis is eminently readable and accessible for those with absolutely no background in the period." - Publishers Weekly
"A fascinating history of late nineteenth-century Paris as it was becoming a cosmopolitan seat of a transnational empire. Its parallels with our own time are chilling." - Tyler Stovall, University of California
Critic reviews
From THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW:
"Aaron Freundschuh rings the graveyard church bells for a refined, if corrupt fin de siècle world that passed away with a sigh. When the Paris police prefect got word in March 1887 of a triple homicide on the Rue Montaigne, he knew what he had -- yet another senseless murder of women from the Parisian demimonde. But this time attention had to paid, because one of the victims, Madame de Montille, was a courtesan belonging to "an ethereal rank" of kept women known for their professional skills and fabulous wealth. The level of butchery linked the killings to a series of unsolved homicides that began eight years earlier. Had Jack the Ripper not made his dramatic appearance a year later, Freundschuh convincingly argues, the courtesan killings would have entered into the historical annals."
From PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:
"The story of the investigation, Pranzini's apprehension, his eventual trial, and its dramatic resolution are enthralling, and the context for those events gives this work contemporary relevance." (STARRED REVIEW)
"Reading like a thriller novel, this meticulously researched account goes beyond the fait divers by bringing to the fore a complex interplay of political and social forces in a changing city at a time when national identity was challenged."
--EuropeNow (Editor's Pick)
"Ambitious and original, The Courtesan and the Gigolo is not only comprehensive, but timely."
--Urban History
"The Courtesan and the Gigolo presents a fascinating history of late nineteenth-century Paris as it was becoming a cosmopolitan seat of a transnational empire...Its parallels with our own time are chilling."
--Tyler Stovall, University of California, Santa Cruz
"[Freundschuh] expands how we think about empire... The Courtesan and the Gigolo could easily serve as a model for what advanced students should do: research widely and deeply in the primary sources, then broadly contextualize the data and craft a well-written, compelling story, one that is enjoyable to read."
--History: Reviews of New Books
"Freundschuh's investigation of the Pranzini case stretches the limits of the genre...His concept of 'imperial insecurity' is a major insight that brightly renews our understanding of fin-de-siècle societies."
--Dominique Kalifa, Université Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne
"[A] thorough and engaging book, which has clear historiographical significance for historians of the press, crime, prostitution, race and empire."
--French History
"Freundschuh's careful reconstruction of the Pranzini affair both achieves and justifies its rescue from historical oblivion."
--H-France Reviews
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- By Jessica on 04-15-16
By: Lucy Worsley
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Pogrom
- Kishinev and the Tilt of History
- By: Steven J. Zipperstein
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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So shattering were the aftereffects of Kishinev, the rampage that broke out in late-Tsarist Russia in April 1903, that one historian remarked that it was "nothing less than a prototype for the Holocaust itself." In three days of violence, 49 Jews were killed and 600 raped or wounded, while more than 1,000 Jewish-owned houses and stores were ransacked and destroyed.
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good analysis of the 1903 event
- By John Newquist on 08-10-19
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Jack the Ripper and the Case for Scotland Yard's Prime Suspect
- By: Robert House, Roy Hazelwood - foreword
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Dozens of theories have attempted to resolve the mystery of the identity of Jack the Ripper, the world's most famous serial killer. Ripperologist Robert House contends that we may have known the answer all along. The head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation Department at the time of the murders thought Aaron Kozminski was guilty, but he lacked the legal proof to convict him. By exploring Kozminski's life, Robert House here builds a strong circumstantial case against him.
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A restrained and humane account
- By Tad Davis on 01-08-13
By: Robert House, and others
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The Bettencourt Affair
- The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris
- By: Tom Sancton
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Heiress to the nearly 40-billion-dollar L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt was the world’s richest woman and the 14th wealthiest person. But her gilded life took a dark yet fascinating turn in the past decade. At 94, she was embroiled in what has been called the Bettencourt Affair, a scandal that dominated the headlines in France. Why? It’s a tangled web of hidden secrets, divided loyalties, frayed relationships, and fractured families, set in the most romantic city - and involving the most glamorous industry - in the world.
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A Juicy Chronicle
- By Jean on 10-24-17
By: Tom Sancton
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The Eternal Nazi
- From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim
- By: Nicholas Kulish, Souad Mekhennet
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Aribert Heim worked at the Mauthausen concentration camp for only a few months in 1941 but left a devastating mark. According to the testimony of survivors, Heim euthanized patients with injections of gasoline into their hearts. He performed surgeries on otherwise healthy people. Some recalled prisoners' skulls set out on his desk to display perfect sets of teeth. Yet in the chaos of the postwar period, Heim was able to slip away from his dark past and establish himself as a reputable doctor and family man in the resort town of Baden-Baden.
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Not certain about this one...
- By Nancy on 11-24-22
By: Nicholas Kulish, and others
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The First Family
- Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia
- By: Mike Dash
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Before the Five Families who so notoriously dominated U.S. organized crime for a bloody half-century, there was the one-fingered, surpassingly cunning Giuseppe Morello and his murderous coterie of brothers. Born into a life of poverty in rural Sicily, Morello became an American nightmare, pioneering the bizarre initiation rituals, imaginative protection rackets, influential underworld reigns, and Mafia wars later popularized by countless books, television shows, and movies.
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The truth about the origins of the American mafia
- By J. Sovar on 01-09-13
By: Mike Dash
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The Devil's Gentleman
- Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The wayward son of a revered Civil War general, Roland Molineux enjoyed good looks, status, and fortune - hardly the qualities of a prime suspect in a series of shocking, merciless cyanide killings. Molineux's subsequent indictment for murder led to two explosive trials and a sex-infused scandal that shocked the nation. Bringing to life Manhattan's Gilded Age, Schechter captures all the colors of the tumultuous legal proceedings.
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A Book Without an Accompanying Wiki Page Is Always A Treat
- By Carolina on 02-27-17
By: Harold Schechter
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The Sewing Girl's Tale
- A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America
- By: John Wood Sweet
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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On a moonless night in the summer of 1793 a crime was committed in the back room of a New York brothel—the kind of crime that even victims usually kept secret. Instead, seventeen-year-old seamstress Lanah Sawyer did what virtually no one in US history had done before: she charged a gentleman with rape. Her accusation sparked a raw courtroom drama and a relentless struggle for vindication that threatened both Lanah’s and her assailant’s lives.
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Great for history buffs!
- By LibertyHillbilly on 02-09-23
By: John Wood Sweet
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The Invention of Murder
- How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime
- By: Judith Flanders
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Murder in the 19th century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous, with cold-blooded killings transformed into novels, broadsides, ballads, opera, and melodrama - even into puppet shows and performing-dog acts. Detective fiction and the new police force developed in parallel, each imitating the other - the founders of Scotland Yard gave rise to Dickens's Inspector Bucket, the first fictional police detective, who in turn influenced Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, even P. D. James and Patricia Cornwell.
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Excellent, awesome and educational!
- By Janalyn on 03-14-20
By: Judith Flanders
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Queen of Thieves
- The True Story of "Marm" Mandelbaum and Her Gangs of New York
- By: J. North Conway
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Queen of Thieves is the gritty, fast-paced story of Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum, a poor Jewish woman who rose to the top of her profession in organized crime during the Gilded Age in New York City. During her more than twenty-five-year reign as the country’s top receiver of stolen goods, she accumulated great wealth and power inconceivable for women engaged in business, legitimate or otherwise.
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a bit repetitive
- By Andy on 09-19-14
By: J. North Conway
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When Brooklyn Was Queer
- By: Hugh Ryan
- Narrated by: Hugh Ryan
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Hugh Ryan's When Brooklyn Was Queer is a groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the queer women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. In intimate, evocative, moving prose, Ryan brings this never-before-told story of Brooklyn's vibrant and forgotten queer history to life.
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A Love Letter
- By Jeffrey on 06-26-19
By: Hugh Ryan
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Hunting Evil
- The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice
- By: Guy Walters
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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From its haunting chronicle of the monstrous mass murders the Nazis perpetrated and the murky details of their postwar existence to the challenges of hunting them down, Hunting Evil is a monumental work of nonfiction written with the pacing and intrigue of a thriller.
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Eye-opening and riveting
- By Ellen on 10-20-10
By: Guy Walters
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The Nazi Hunters
- By: Andrew Nagorski
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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More than seven decades after the end of the Second World War, the era of the Nazi hunters is drawing to a close as they and the hunted die off. Their saga can now be told almost in its entirety. After the Nuremberg trials and the start of the Cold War, most of the victors in World War II lost interest in prosecuting Nazi war criminals. Many of the lower-ranking perpetrators quickly blended in with the millions who were seeking to rebuild their lives in a new Europe, while those who felt most at risk fled the continent.
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Best on subject
- By night owl on 03-09-17
By: Andrew Nagorski
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The Italians
- By: John Hooper
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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John Hooper's marvelously entertaining and perceptive new book is ideal for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Italy and the unique character of the Italians. Looking at the facts that lie behind and often belie the stereotypes, his revealing book sheds new light on many aspects of Italian life: football and Freemasonry, sex, symbolism, and the reason Italian has twelve words for a coat hanger yet none for a hangover.
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Mi piace molto!
- By Adeliese Baumann on 12-30-16
By: John Hooper
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Mary's Mosaic
- The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace
- By: Peter Janney
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 17 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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A shocking expos on the life and death of political peace activist Mary Pinchot Meyer, whose relationship with John F. Kennedy sheds new light on the circumstances surrounding his assassination. Who really murdered Mary Pinchot Meyer in the fall of 1964? Why was there a mad rush by CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton to immediately locate and confiscate her diary? What in that diary was so explosive and revealing?
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A must read to understand the real power brokers of this country
- By barry Lowe on 02-12-16
By: Peter Janney
What listeners say about The Courtesan and the Gigolo
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Rayc
- 02-07-18
An Interesting Murder Tale
I downloaded this book thinking it was a period true