The French Consul's Wife Memoirs of Céleste de Chabrillan in Gold-Rush Australia

by Allen, Jeanne; Clancy, Patricia

• ISBN13: 9780522850666
• ISBN10: 0522850669
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-04-13
• Publisher: Melbourne University Press

Summary

This memoir of Ceacute;leste de Chabrillan, former Parisian courtesan, circus performer, dancer, and wife of the French consul, offers a firsthand account of the years she spent in gold rush Victoria during the middle of the 19th century. De Chabrillan recounts stories of her childhood in the village of St. Kilda, her time spent in the Ballarat gold field, and her attendance of a public hanging and Governor Hotham's "beer ball." The publication of this memoir, which includes descriptions of her illegitimate birth, miserable adolescence, and celebrity career as a bareback rider and polka dancer, resulted in de Chabrillan's ostracism from Melbourne society and her being nicknamed the consul's "harlot spouse."

Author Biography

Patricia Clancy is a former senior lecturer in the French department of the University of Melbourne. She is a winner of the Victorian Premier’s Award for Literary Translation. Jeanne Allen is a former professor of French at La Trobe University and Melbourne University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(16)
Part One: Marriage and the Journey Out
From Courtesan to Countess	17	(8)
On Board the Croesus---People and Places	25	(19)
In Port at Lisbon and the Cape	44	(27)
The Last Leg of the Journey	71	(12)
Part Two: Life in Gold-rush Australia
First Impressions and Settling In	83	(13)
Celeste the Landowner and Consul's Wife	96	(8)
Fights, a Hanging and Trouble at Ballarat	104	(7)
The Move to St Kilda, Social Life and Speculation	111	(9)
Two Near-tragedies	120	(12)
Two Balls and Danger on the Bay	132	(9)
Lola Montez and the Theatre	141	(5)
Ill-health and Financial Disaster	146	(13)
Part Three: Separation---Paris and Melbourne
The Return Journey	159	(15)
Paris Regained	174	(23)
Part Four: Reunion and Final Parting
Lionel on Leave	197	(12)
Letters from Lionel at Sea	209	(21)
Melbourne and Chateauroux	230	(6)
Death at the End of the World	236	(12)
Epilogue	248	(8)
Notes	256	(17)
Appendices	273	(16)
Bibliography	289	(8)
Index	297