As a ladies' bag for smelling salts and powder, the Pompadour symbolized courtly lifestyle. Its namesake, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764), was the quintessential mistress of King Louis XV of France in the 18th century. In this book, Armin Gebhardt recounts how the daughter of a bourgeois army supplier, despite being married to her nephew, persistently sought the king's favor after a prophetic prediction. At a masked ball, she skillfully captivated Louis to such an extent that he declared her his official mistress and shortly thereafter elevated her to the rank of Marquise. For six years, Madame Pompadour held the monarch in an erotic spell, without causing any fatal offense to the queen. After that, as his closest confidante, she dispelled his oppressive boredom with theater performances and other amusements.