French Consul’s Wife, The: Memoirs of Celeste De Chabrillian in Gold-Rush Australia

AUSTRALIANA Biography

“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 first-hand 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 earlier memoirs describing her illegitimate birth, miserable adolescence and celebrity career as courtesan, bare-back rider and polka dancer. She had believed the book would never reach Australia but it went on sale just before she arrived. As a result she was dubbed the consul’s ‘harlot spouse’ and ostracised by polite society.”

“Despite this, Celeste did not avoid the public gaze and continued to employ her literary talents. These memoirs are of a life spent in the village of St. Kilda, the diplomatic and Government House circle and the Ballarat gold fields. The exotic dancer Lola Montez, the actor/entrepreneur George Coppin and the pioneer photographer Antoine Fauchery are among the historical figures portrayed by a writer who is revealed as a woman of great energy and wilful temperament.”

Miegunyah Press series. Series 2 ; no. 18. 1st limited (1000) edition, No. 18 in the second numbered series of the Miegunyah Volumes. Translated with introduction and notes by Patricia Clancy and Jeanne Allen, from the 1877 French original ‘Un Deuil au bout du monde’.

• Chabrillan, Celeste Venard de, comtesse, 1824-1909
• Actors — France — Biography
• Gold mines and mining — Victoria
• Victoria — Social life and customs — 1851-1891
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