Resources

Sasportes, Jose. "Grand Opera and the Decline of Ballet in the later Nineteenth Century: A Discursive Essay." Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research, vol. 33, 2015, pp.258-268.

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This text provides a look into the decline of the French ballet in the later Nineteenth Century, around the context of this research. It provides important historical context for understanding the politics surrounding why the French ballet school was in decline after an era of being the champion of ballet aesthetics.

Myers, Nicole. "The Lure of Montmartre, 1800-1900." The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mont/hd_mont.htm.

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This essay on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website provides a relative starting point for understanding the historical context of prostitution in the dance industry as it pertains to Paris. This essay was helpful in providing cultural information of this time period in order to see that exploitation was a pervasive issue throughout the area during the Third Republic, not just the ballet.

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Weissback, Lee S. "Child Labor Legislation in Nineteenth-Century France." The Journal of Economic History, vol. 37, no. 1, 1977, pp. 268-271.

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An illuminative dissertation on the finer details of child labor laws in 1830s France. Though it makes no mention of the ballerinas at the Opera, it's discussion of child labor laws and the fragmented efforts to implement them provide readers with the scope for understanding the legality of child labor. 

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Pearsall, Ronald. "The Worm in The Bud: The World of Victorian Sexuality." Sutton, 2003. 

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A wonderful and detailed account of everything pertaining to Victorian sexuality including a section on child exploitation and prostitution. Though it does not discuss France, but rather England, it provides insight into what was a truly pervasive infection in European culture at this time, as well as an understanding into the lack of alarm and disgust at the time regarding these important issues. 

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Laurens, Camille. "Little Dancer Aged Fourteen." Les Fugitives, 2018. 

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Laurens book gives a crash-course look into the life of Marie Van Goethem, the inspiration behind Edgar Degas' famous statue Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, as well as a look into the life of a petite rat at the Paris Opera ballet. In her groundbreaking work, Laurens details the lives of Marie Van Goethem's sisters, allowing readers the chance to see the different paths taken by girls entering the Paris Opera Ballet School.

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Edgar Degas Biography. Biography, 2 April 2014, https://www.biography.com/artist/edgar-degas. Date Accessed: 11 May 2021.

A basic biography of Degas' life, works, and controversy. This was a useful source for beginning my research on Degas.

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Wikimedia, Contributeurs aux projets. “Le Rat (Gautier).” Wikisource, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 19 Nov. 2013, fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Rat_(Gautier). Accessed: 11 May 2021.

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This poetic account details the plight of the Petite Rats and was useful in understanding the daily requirements of these girls as well as the cultural views of the rats.

Kushner, Nina. "Procuring Mothers, Sacrificed Daughters, and "Helpful" Policemen: The Elite Prostitute as Family Breadwinner in Eighteenth Century Paris." Proceedings of the ... Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History, vol. 29, 1974, pp.11-20.

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This is the most useful works that I found for unearthing how long this culture of exploitation went on in the Opera. In Kushner's work, she discusses the main avenues that families took during the Georgian era to prostitute their daughters. She further explains the lack of help from police as well as how girls in these families ultimately escaped from under the thumb of controlling parents in under a year. Superb research and bases it all mostly from primary text sources.