A WHITE CAMELIA A RED CAMELIA, THE LADY OF THE CAMELIAS, HISTORY, NOVEL, FRANCK FERNÁNDEZ 147

The courtesans were famous in Paris in the 18th and 19th centuries: they were also called “women of quality”, “gallant women”, “scandalous”, “cocottes”, “grand horizontals” and “semi-mundane”… but they all exercised same profession. There were several who went down in history: Mata Hari, Madame de Pompadour, Bella Otero, the Galician of whom José Martí said: “How do they say she is Galician? Well, they say wrong: she is divine”, Liana de Pougy, the Countess of Castiglioni, the Muscovite Paivá (whoever pays there goes) who from the sidewalks of the Jewish ghetto of Moscow went to the highest strata of the Paris of the Second Empire with her very elegant palace at 25, Avenue des Champs-Elysées. But none, despite her short life, transcended literature, music and art like Marie Duplessis.