The Courtesan and the Gigolo: The Murders in the Rue Montaigne and the Dark Side of Empire in Nineteenth-Century Paris

Freundschuh, a history professor at CUNY, expertly integrates broader geopolitical themes into a compelling true crime story about a series of now-obscure murders that at the time were the talk of Paris. The narrative begins in 1887 with the bloody slaughter of Madame de Montille, a high-class prostitute, and two members of her household, presumed to be the latest in a string of murders targeting “women of the Parisian demimonde.” The arrest a few days later of an Egyptian immigrant named Enrico Pranzini garnered international media attention. The story of the investigation, Pranzini’s apprehension, his eventual trial, and its dramatic resolution are enthralling, and the context for those events gives this work contemporary relevance. The political fallout from the Pranzini case included a push for tighter immigration controls and increased insecurity in the French homeland, even as the Third Republic’s imperial ambitions thrived. This well-reasoned analysis is eminently readable and accessible for those with absolutely no background in the period. (Jan.)