Search - Harriette Wilson's Memoirs (The Greatest Courtesan of Her Age)

Tracy M. (tracymar) reviewed 12/12/2008...
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2 member(s) found this review helpful.

What a marvelous read, this first person account of life as a celebrated courtesan in England during Georgian times and the Regency. Not merely a chronicling of events and people (both which are interesting!) Harriette lets you into her inner world, and all the emotional tangles of her family relationships and affairs.......and her struggle to survive as she ages, becomes desperate for money, and begins to lose her appeal. Since Harriette, who caused a stir when she published her memoirs, offered to keep the names of certain gentlemen out of her book if they paid her quite a bit of money, we don't learn about all her lovers, but we do get a few juicy tidbits, and a chance to get to know the inner workings of a fascinating and also infuriating notorious woman. Anyone interested in late 18th/early 19th century England and the life of courtesans will be enthralled.

Amanda S. (dspek498) reviewed 8/20/2008...

My Dear Lord Byron, I hate to ask you for money...
However, I only require a little present aid, and that I am sure you will not refuse me, as you once refused to make my acquaintance because you held me to cheap... H.W.

These are the memoirs of the reigning courtesan of Regency London whose patrons included most of the distinguished men of her day, from the Duke of Wellington to Lord Byron. Hard -pressed for money in the middle age, she sold her memoirs after offering to edit out any lovers who paid her the sum of 200 pounds...

'Publish and be damned!' cried the Duke of Wellington.

She did and she was.

Karen H. (SashaFletch) reviewed 5/28/2009...
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I read all 442 pages of Harriette Wilson's Memoirs in less than a week. When I started it, I had no idea how completely entertaining this book would be. Funny at times, poignant at others.... Harriette seems completely at ease behind her pen and very outgoing and candid. The biographies at the end of the book help to keep all her admirers from becoming confusing and are very interesting in and of themselves. Harriette may have been the Greatest Courtesan of her age, but she was still considered a "Fallen Woman" and it really made me sad to see the way she ended her life - in obscurity and poverty with nothing more heard from her past the age of 46 when she writes that she is dying.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves history, but wants to get a purely refreshing perspective from a woman who REALLY lived her life to the fullest during the Regency period in England. Never a dull moment. I don't know how she kept up with it all.