Talk:Harriette Wilson

Untitled
This page needs clean-up. Poorly written. Zaslav 07:43, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

John Ponsonby
The article says, "The one man with whom Harriette fell deeply in love, John Ponsonby...". However, the linked Ponsonby cannot be correct, since he died when Wilson was three years old. Wikipedia has two other candidates with the same name, whose age makes the relationship feasible: John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough and John Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Ponsonby. Does anyone happen to know which of these was the man in question? Or, if it is neither, which other Ponsonby it could be? -- Hux 08:53, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Speedy deletion tag
When researching the above, I came across this page, which contains an excerpt from a book about Wilson. As you can see, the text is almost identical to that added in this diff, so I tagged the page for speedy deletion on the basis of blatant copyright infringement. If speedy deletion is not appropriate then perhaps it can simply be reverted to a much earlier diff, before the infringing material was added. -- Hux 09:15, 10 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I took out the Guardian review stuff and took off the speedy tag. It can be rewritten and kept. Daniel Case 14:23, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

The Ponsonby in question was 1st Viscount Ponsonby. See Lesley Blanch's introduction to her edition of Wilson's memoirs. Misskaylea (talk) 17:20, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Blackmail activity
Previously, this article was much larger. among other things, it contained claims that she was highly active i blackmail. why hasthis been removed? Was it incorrect? was she activewithin blackmail?--85.226.46.232 (talk) 21:27, 12 April 2010 (UTC)


 * This was the information I was talking about:

"Life as a courtesan, blackmail Born in Shepherd Market, Mayfair, England, she was the daughter of a Swiss clockmaker, and started working as a prostitute by age 12. Wilson was an extremely attractive young woman. She began her career as a courtesan at the age of 15, becoming the mistress of William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven, 7th Baron Craven. Among her later lovers was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who is said to have commented "publish, and be damned" when informed of her plans to write her memoirs. [3] (http://www.jazzbabies.com/home/wilson.htm)

Harriette Wilson's weakness, and her eventual downfall as a courtesan, was her practice of using blackmail to extort from her benefactors. Her opening strategy when she aimed to seduce a man of prominence and wealth was to write him an intriguing letter. After becoming involved with him sexually, she would then turn the tables, indicating to him that she was going to write her memoirs, divulging their affair. Through doing this, often these men of wealth would simply pay her a hefty sum of money to leave them nameless in the memoirs. This strategy was completely opposite to other women throughout history who served as courtesans. Normally, the object was to become involved with two or more wealthy men, remain discreet and at their beck and call, thus giving long life to the affair, and to the financial income.

Her great advantage as a "top" courtesan of the time was based solely on the fact that she had slept with an impressive number of established wealthy men, none of whom were keen on it being known publicly. However, Wilson's purpose for writing was not revenge for a wrong being done, but instead was mere blackmail. Any of her conquests who preferred that their name did not appear in her book could simply pay up. [4] (http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1035749,00.html)

Blackmail failures, downfall The strategy produced mixed results. Many would simply pay her and be done with it. Some, however, simply called her bluff. Harriette's principal mistake short of the blackmail, it seems, was believing that she was appreciated beyond her sexual celebrity, and that those she was closest to valued her as a friend as well as a courtesan, which turned out not to be the case.

The Duke of Argyll, for example, simply transferred his interest seamlessly from Harriette to her sister Amy. The one man with whom Harriette fell deeply in love, John Ponsonby, was involved with her briefly, then left her and became involved with another of her younger sisters, 14-year-old Fanny.

At least three and possibly five of her many sisters were also courtesans, all beginning and often ending as prostitutes, starting at a young age, usually around 12 or 13: only Sophia joined the select few courtesans of whom their aristocratic protectors married, becoming Lady Berwick at the age of 17. In common with most other courtesans, Harriette's economic security depended on her lovers keeping their promises to provide for her even after the relationship ended - which they signally failed to do, due to her betrayal of the unwritten rule of never causing stress to your benefactors' personal lives.

Harriette's attempts to hold her ex-protectors to their word earned her the reputation of "being difficult and a menace", a label that threatened to jeopardise her appeal to potential protectors. A courtesan's success depended greatly on her reliability as being discreet, respectful of her wealthy protector's position and privacy. The unwritten rule was simple: courtesans did not disrupt their lovers' personal or public life. Now that she had done this, her reputation was tarnished, therefore her value was too. As her debts mounted, she proposed the radical solution of blackmail. [5] (http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1035749,00.html) [6] (http://m.faculty.umkc.edu/mallinickd/romanticnovel/kroone/Biography.html) It was this tarnished reputation that led to the end of her success as a courtesan and an end to the wealthy men whom she could blackmail, to her eventual downfall, great debt, and her dying in poverty."


 * I see now, that this was not deleeted because it was untrue, but because it was a direct quote and thereby a copy-violation. That means, that this information can be reintroduced to the article, if it is rephrased. (it also needs to be more NPOV). I may do this myself.--85.226.41.108 (talk) 13:02, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

Virginia Woolf and other sources
Virginia Woolf, "Harriette Wilson", in Gross, John, The Oxford book of essays, pp404-08, is another source. And of course there are also the memoirs themselves (The Memoires of Harriette Wilson, Written by Herself, in two volumes, see eg Amazon; Project Gutenberg does not have). m.e. (talk) 16:09, 30 May 2010 (UTC)