The Honest Courtesan
 Cover of the book | |
| Author | Margaret Rosenthal |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Biography |
| Publication date | February 1, 1993 |
| Publication place | United States |
The Honest Courtesan is a 1993 book by Margaret Rosenthal, a biography of Veronica Franco, the 16th-century Venetian courtesan.
Description
[edit]"The Venetian courtesan has long captured the imagination as a female symbol of sexual license, elegance, beauty and unruliness. What then to make of the cortigiana onesta - the honest courtesan who recast virtue as intellectual integrity and offered wit and refinement in return for patronage and a place in public life?" Veronica Franco (1546–1591) was such a woman, a writer and citizen of Venice, whose published poems and letters offer testimony to the complexity of the honest courtesan's position.
Adaptation
[edit]The book was adapted for the 1998 film Dangerous Beauty, directed by Marshall Herskovitz and starring Catherine McCormack as Franco. Also released as A Destiny of Her Own in some regions, the film was re-titled The Honest Courtesan for video release in the United Kingdom and Europe in 1999.
First edition
[edit]The Honest Courtesan : Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice. Margaret F. Rosenthal. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1992. ISBN 0-226-72811-0 (hardbound), ISBN 0-226-72812-9 (paperback)