Demi-monde

Overview

Demi-monde ("half-world") is the society of kept women and courtesans and the men who frequented them, on the margin of respectable society. The word was coined by Alexandre Dumas fils in his comedy Le Demi-Monde (1855) and was in everyday use by the 1870s (Wikipedia, "Demi-monde"). Marie uses it as the opposite of le monde, the society she wants to belong to.

References in Diary

• 1874-07-16 (021.0322): of Mme Basilévitch: «c'est une femme du monde qui se conduit comme une femme du demi-monde».
• 1876-03-08, Rome (055.0436): «une femme du demi-monde», in a dialogue.
• 1877-07-17 (073.0041): a luxury seen «non pas dans le demi-monde, mais dans le vrai monde».
• 1879-04-29 (085.0031): a husband who «n'a pas renoncé au demi-monde».
• 1881-10-06, Spain (093.0189): «le demi-monde comme en France n'existe pas».

See also the theme #Society.