Talk:Cora Pearl

Editing
I've been working on editing this bio, adding information and inline citations. Will continue to work on this project. Betempte (talk) 22:26, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

False Information
Based on this article, I read the actual memoirs written by Cora Pearl in 1886 and looked for the erotic memoirs mentioned so prominently in the citations, allegedly found in a German collection in 1982. After much searching, I discovered that Grand Horizontal, The Erotic Memoirs of a Passionate Life (US title); The Memoirs of Cora Pearl: The Erotic Reminiscences of a Flamboyant 19th Century Courtesan (UK title) is, in fact, fiction. William Blatchford is a pseudonym used by Derek Parker; the book is on the list of Parker's solo works. It is listed as fiction, the material was created entirely by Parker; the "edited" attribution is fictitious, as is the "German collection" story and the use of Pearl's name to imply that she actually wrote it. Copies available on many sites note that a copy of a newspaper story by "The Times" of 7 Mar 1984 is on the inside cover which details Parker's deception (sic).

This article needs a major rewrite and all material attributed soley to the Blatchford/Parker books needs to be removed. I don't know when/if I can find the time to do it myself (hint, hint!) AnonTech (talk) 05:22, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I can confirm that I have a note from the author of Grand Horizontal pointing out that it is a work of fiction, as has been acknowledged for a very long time.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 22:47, 31 January 2014 (UTC)


 * I've deleted some "What Links Here" references to Cora Pearl. However, in so doing I noticed that there is a 1933 biography of her and a 1941 film based on her life.
 * I don't think the material I deleted was very useful to Wikipedia. But I think we should pause before concluding that she is fictional. Unless there is a very elaborate hoax going on, it doesn't look like she is. Or am I missing that it is only the book, not the person that is fictional? Formerip (talk) 02:28, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
 * As I understand it, and I have not done extensive research, the issue is that the book by "William Blatchford" is a pseudonymous work of fiction by Derek Parker. I think there is no implication of fraud - the fictional nature of the book was discussed openly at the time it was published, I believe.  There is no suggestion that Cora Pearl herself is a fictional character or a hoax.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 13:06, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

I've rewritten the paragraph that claims that the work found by "William Blatchford" in the early 1980s were the genuine memoirs of Cora Pearl, and I've provided 2 references to articles in the London Times where the hoax was freely admitted. I've also been through the entire article and have removed all references which treated the Blatchford memoirs as a genuine and reliable source. I have not, however, removed the information supposedly provided by the spurious memoirs, since that would have meant rewriting much of the article and a lengthy search for genuine and reliable sources. There is also the strong possibility that almost all the references which remain are, which are from the one work by Joanna Richardson, relied heavily on the spurious memoirs that the author took to be genuine. So although I've fixed one problem (removing the references which treated a work of fiction as a historical source), there are still major problems with this article in that it is now under-referenced. (Jabezjabez (talk) 01:41, 13 February 2014 (UTC))