French Consul’s Wife, The: Memoirs of Céleste de Chabrillan in Gold-Rush Australia

“What a subject for a film, but not, please, Meryl Streep … Together with Dr Patricia Clancy (Melbourne University) and Jeanne Allen’s (La Trobe University) elegant translation and able notes, the memoirs make for a piquant, informative, variegated and often startling read … Miegunyah Press you’ve done it again.’ (Derek Whitelock, Weekend Australian) 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. C leste’s arrival in Melbourne was preceded by the publication of her memoirs describing her illegitimate birth, miserable adolescence and celebrity career as a courtesan…”
xi, 304 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., facsims., ports. ; 24 cm. #170522