image id: ps_cps_cd4_057
Harriette Wilson (1786–1846)
Memoirs of Harriette Wilson. Vol. 1 of 4
London: Printed and Published by J. J. Stockdale …, 1825
NYPL, The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Usually attached to one man from whom they often received a fixed allowance,
courtesans were not merely prostitutes. They made aristocratic men comfortable
with refined social skills, but enjoyed sex shamelessly in an age when shame
had begun to be the mark of a lady. The courtesan Harriette Wilson blackmailed
former lovers—many of them rich and respectable—withholding their
names from her 1825 Memoirs if they paid up. The book was issued in monthly
installments, giving her time to negotiate. Even when she named names, however,
Wilson was suggestive, never graphic. As soon as the publication was complete,
the printing pirates leapt on it, since works like hers could not claim copyright
protection; in these pirated editions, such as The Courtezan, illustrators
compensated for her taste with racy pictures.
