InTheCompanyOfTheCourtesan

In our modern world, Europe is liberal and peaceful, and Western Asia is subjugated under corrupt, fascist governments that repress sex to exploit their people, and make them militaristic.

As Voltaire said, He who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

500 years ago, Europe and Western Asia's situations were reversed. The Ottoman Empire cultivated a sophisticated urban populace with many sexual freedoms, while in Europe you could be burned at the stake for "sodomy".

Or for "witchcraft", which essentially meant facilitating abortions.

In a world where women were denied access to birth control, men cannot simply keep girlfriends until they are ready to marry. They must retain mistresses, from the class below theirs, and pay them as insurance against fertility.

The nobility's needs are served by "courtesans" - professional girlfriends who make a living entertaining men at elaborate feasts, then politely selecting one to spend the night with. These women could run a household as large as a small palace, complete with servants, a menagerie, and entertainers, including oddities such as dwarfs.

This book asks some questions of this situation. What if one of these dwarfs were more than entertainment, and were actually the business manager? What if this dwarf & his mistress developed a platonic love for each other; a meeting of the minds?

And what if the mistress lost everything, and had to work her way back up, by any means necessary?

And what if "sleeping" your way to the top was itself a health risk?

In this environment, the most dangerous pursuit of all can be the pursuit of Love.

--PhlIp