Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2008-07-09 02:26 pm
tenlittlebullets) wrote2008-07-09 02:26 pm
Entry tags:
Historical meta of an inconsequential nature.
Nothing recent set this off, I'm just rather puzzled by the apparent inability of Les Mis authors to write their students doing anything but hang around in cafés in various stages of inebriation and revolutionary fervor. You'd think Paris was a dull town with nothing else to do. So at some point when I was bored over the weekend I drew up a short and by no means exhaustive list of amusements and diversions for a Parisian student of the early 19th century.
Entertainment
Theatre: Hardly the highbrow event it is now, more like the equivalent of going to the movies. Ranged from the Théâtre Français at the top end all the way down to the melodramas and vaudevilles of the boulevard theatres.
Dance-halls: Often rowdy, often frequented by students. The cancan was popular, danced at that point by couples or groups instead of a chorus line. The Jardin Turc and Musard's balls at the Théâtre des Variétés were popular.
Concerts and the Opera: Also capable of getting rowdy, or at least talkative; audiences certainly didn't listen in silent, rapt attention like they do today. The Opera, more than the concert hall, was primarily a social and not a musical event.
Activities befitting a hot-headed young gentleman
Your mileage may vary depending on how much of a gentleman your Frenchboy is. Hunting, horse races, and various forms of sport certainly depended on money as well as social class, but there's nothing stopping Feuilly from liking a game of billiards as much as any of his student friends.
Smoking: Cigars were fashionable, cigarettes existed but hadn't quite come into vogue yet.
Gambling: On dice, cards, dominoes, or pretty much anything you could imagine. A common pastime that most of the boys probably indulged in at some point.
Duelling: Often for satisfaction of honor more than the desire to actually kill one's opponent. Usually with pistols in the 19th century, anywhere between one and three shots depending on when the challenger decided he was satisfied. It was up to the seconds to find a suitable time and place for the duel to take place, privacy being the chief criterion.
Debauchery
Prostitution was a regulated industry in France, mostly in an attempt to curb venereal disease. Ladies of negotiable affection had to register with the municipal authorities, and brothels were licensed.
The streetwalker: The lowest of the low. Your boys can probably do better.
The house of ill repute: Much like dining establishments, these came in all ranges of price, quality, and catering to specialized tastes. Even seedy ones were less likely to land you with the clap than going home with a streetwalker, and as prices increased so did the refinement of the ladies. Prices started around one franc at the very low end.
The kept woman: AKA the mistress. One was expected to pay all her living expenses, including separate lodgings if one wanted to keep up a decent pretense. Such relationships were quietly tolerated and almost expected, but the woman in question occupied the same moral position as a whore.
The grisette: Working girls of loose morals with a taste for students, ranging from devoted mistresses and mere flirts to Bohemian groupies, nude models, and part-time prostitutes. Regarded alternately as the personification of evanescent youthful love and charm, or as shameless opportunists. Shop-girls, seamstresses, milliners, etc.
And, of course, those of (ahem) a particular persuasion might find covert assignations in the Champs-Elysées, the gardens of the Tuileries, or even Les Halles. It is also to be noted that in the 1830s, up to a quarter of Parisian prostitutes were Sapphists either by nature or for pay.
Entertainment
Theatre: Hardly the highbrow event it is now, more like the equivalent of going to the movies. Ranged from the Théâtre Français at the top end all the way down to the melodramas and vaudevilles of the boulevard theatres.
Dance-halls: Often rowdy, often frequented by students. The cancan was popular, danced at that point by couples or groups instead of a chorus line. The Jardin Turc and Musard's balls at the Théâtre des Variétés were popular.
Concerts and the Opera: Also capable of getting rowdy, or at least talkative; audiences certainly didn't listen in silent, rapt attention like they do today. The Opera, more than the concert hall, was primarily a social and not a musical event.
Activities befitting a hot-headed young gentleman
Your mileage may vary depending on how much of a gentleman your Frenchboy is. Hunting, horse races, and various forms of sport certainly depended on money as well as social class, but there's nothing stopping Feuilly from liking a game of billiards as much as any of his student friends.
Smoking: Cigars were fashionable, cigarettes existed but hadn't quite come into vogue yet.
Gambling: On dice, cards, dominoes, or pretty much anything you could imagine. A common pastime that most of the boys probably indulged in at some point.
Duelling: Often for satisfaction of honor more than the desire to actually kill one's opponent. Usually with pistols in the 19th century, anywhere between one and three shots depending on when the challenger decided he was satisfied. It was up to the seconds to find a suitable time and place for the duel to take place, privacy being the chief criterion.
Debauchery
Prostitution was a regulated industry in France, mostly in an attempt to curb venereal disease. Ladies of negotiable affection had to register with the municipal authorities, and brothels were licensed.
The streetwalker: The lowest of the low. Your boys can probably do better.
The house of ill repute: Much like dining establishments, these came in all ranges of price, quality, and catering to specialized tastes. Even seedy ones were less likely to land you with the clap than going home with a streetwalker, and as prices increased so did the refinement of the ladies. Prices started around one franc at the very low end.
The kept woman: AKA the mistress. One was expected to pay all her living expenses, including separate lodgings if one wanted to keep up a decent pretense. Such relationships were quietly tolerated and almost expected, but the woman in question occupied the same moral position as a whore.
The grisette: Working girls of loose morals with a taste for students, ranging from devoted mistresses and mere flirts to Bohemian groupies, nude models, and part-time prostitutes. Regarded alternately as the personification of evanescent youthful love and charm, or as shameless opportunists. Shop-girls, seamstresses, milliners, etc.
And, of course, those of (ahem) a particular persuasion might find covert assignations in the Champs-Elysées, the gardens of the Tuileries, or even Les Halles. It is also to be noted that in the 1830s, up to a quarter of Parisian prostitutes were Sapphists either by nature or for pay.
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Also one shouldn't forget that many of today's "dorky" activities were not dorky then. It was the thing to go to the Salon and look at (and mock) all the new paintings (and some years are kinda easy to look up online, you can be snarky about some of the actual paintings), and go to the zoo at the Jardin des plantes, and attend those lectures one might call "popular science" - we might be late for laughing gas parties or early for seances, but that sort of thing adds colour to the period and lets boys and girls be really damned stupid, in a fun way.
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It was probably O'Brian and his masterful use of period colour that set me off. I couldn't bear the contrast. XD
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But I thought that was why they were revolting. :(