Harriette Wilson (1786–1845)
Auteur de Harriette Wilson's Memoirs: The Greatest Courtesan of Her Age
A propos de l'auteur
Notice de désambiguation :
(eng) Do not combine Harriette Wilson with Harriett E. Wilson. They are different authors.
Œuvres de Harriette Wilson
Oeuvres associées
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Date de naissance
- 1786-02-02
- Date de décès
- 1845-03-10
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- UK
- Lieu de naissance
- Mayfair, London, England, UK
- Lieu du décès
- Chelsea, London, England, UK
- Lieux de résidence
- London, England, UK
- Professions
- sex worker
memoirist - Courte biographie
- Harriette Wilson was a famous courtesan whose lovers included The Prince Regent (the future George IV) and four future Prime Ministers. Short of funds in middle age, Harriette sold her memoirs after offering to edit out any lovers who would pay her. The Duke of Wellington famously replied, "Publish and be damned!"
- Notice de désambigüisation
- Do not combine Harriette Wilson with Harriett E. Wilson. They are different authors.
Membres
Critiques
Prix et récompenses
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Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 9
- Aussi par
- 1
- Membres
- 318
- Popularité
- #74,348
- Évaluation
- 3.3
- Critiques
- 4
- ISBN
- 10
It is, of course, unknown how many men took advantage of Harriette’s offer, but judging from the number who didn’t and are thus mentioned in the Memoirs, she must have been really popular and really busy – the list of men she had encounters with reads like the Peerage. The Duke of Wellington wrote “Publish and Be Damned!” in red ink across Harriette’s blackmail letter and sent it back; thus he does not come off very well in the book – Harriette say he “looked very like a ratcatcher”.
Alas, the book is not all that interesting; Harriette is so busy dropping names that she doesn’t have much time for describing anything else about her times. Several of her clients (including, of course, Wellington) “go to Spain” as if they were taking a beach vacation, when in fact they’re fighting in the Peninsular Campaign. Others pop in and out of her opera box, but she never bothers to comment on the operas or life in London or much of anything.
There’s also little of prurient interest; if you’re looking for a Regency romance novel, you’ll be disappointed. Harriette had a surprisingly brazen business plan; she often wrote letters to noblemen she found interesting, inviting them to come up and see her some time. Subsequent details are suppressed; she gets a passionate kiss from Lord Ponsonby, and Lord Worcester helps her lace up her stays, and that’s about it. She was not supposed to be especially attractive (the elegant lady on the cover of paperback edition I read is apparently not Harriette) but was instead noted for flashing wit and clever conversation. Some of this does come out:
“’I was thinking of you last night, after I got into bed,’ resumed Wellington.
‘How very polite to the Duchess,’ I observed.”
However, you have to wade through pages of criticism of the manners of British nobility and records of boring conversations to come up with an occasional double-entendre like this. Perhaps worthwhile if you have a particular interest in the times; otherwise not.
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