Writing with a Vengeance

Writing with a Vengeance examines the life and works of a nineteenth-century French courtesan, Céleste Vénard, later the Countess de Chabrillan.

Carol Mossman is Professor of French and Director of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Rachel Mesch:
‘In this vibrantly written book, Mossman introduces readers to both a fascinating historical figure and an unexplored female author who offers an important vantage point through which to consider key questions in nineteenth-century French history and literature… In recounting Chabriillan’s unfamiliar story, Mossman succeeds in introducing readers to a fascinating character whose life offers myriad windows into crucial axes of nineteenth-century culture.’

Mary Evans:
‘Fascinating study of the life and times of the Countess de Chabrillan… Mossman is to be applauded for writing an account of a woman who was not destroyed by the deviant aspects of her life. The Countess Chabrillan, rather than colluding with those forms of misogynist fiction that preferred to condemn the prostitute, was a testament to the ability of women to demonstrate their many possible realities.’