Lola Montez (1818-1861) AKA Eliza Gilbert, was a dancer, entertainer, public speaker and sex worker. Her early upbringing in British India was followed by a period at finishing schools in the United Kingdom. She eloped at age sixteen and returned to India, however the marriage ended after five years and Lola Montez began dancing professionally under her newly assumed moniker. She returned to Europe where she performed to much acclaim in Paris particularly, falling in with the Bohemian circles of Franz Liszt, Alexandre Dumas and George Sands. In Munich she caught the attention of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and by 1847 she was living as his mistress with a newly granted title, Countess of Landsfield.
As unofficial consort, she wielded great political power, advocating for liberal reform. However when the revolution came in 1848, she was forced to flee and abandon her stately paramour. She made her way to the United States where she took to the stage, touring a version of her own life story called Lola Montez in Bavaria. She settled for a time in California, married twice more, and made a sensation performing her erotic “spider dance” for gold miners in Australia. She ended her days on the east coast, engaging in rescue work among women.
The present volume, published near the end of her life, anthologises Montez’s lectures on the following subjects: Autobiography, Beautiful Women, Gallantry, Heroines of History, Comic Aspects of Love, Wits and Women of Paris, and Romanticism.
