The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson is a quicksilver chronicle of Regency high life from the demi-monde. With a conversational yet razor-edged style, Wilson names statesmen and grandees, sketches gaming tables and drawing rooms, and anatomizes the economies of sex, money, and patronage. At once confession and social satire, it turns gossip into analysis and exposes the hypocrisies of respectability amid a thriving scandal press. Born to modest means and educated by London's pleasure districts, Wilson became a famed courtesan with unusual access to power. Facing age and debt, she fashioned memoir as leverage and testimony, bargaining with named men to suppress chapters. Published by John Joseph Stockdale, the book's audacity-and Wellington's celebrated refusal-crystallized contemporary anxieties about reputation. Essential for students of gender, politics, and life writing, The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson offers a candid primary source and a sparkling performance of self. Read it for its shrewd social observation, its wit under pressure, and its enduring challenge to polite narratives of power. Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable-distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.

Harriette Wilson (1786-1845) was a notorious British Regency courtesan who became the lover of William, Lord Craven, at the age of 15. Later on in her career, she went on to have official relationship agreements with Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, and other major politicians of the time.