Most people know two things about Harriette Wilson, one of which is untrue. She is rightly famous for that most tantalising of opening sentences: 'I shall not say why and how I became, at the age of 15, the mistress of the Earl of Craven.' With it she ushered in her Memoirs, published in 1825 as a frankly commercial venture. As well as making money in the usual way from the sales of what she wrote, she was willing and indeed anxious to take it from former friends and lovers in exchange for what she left out. That the Duke of Wellington told her to 'publish and be damned' is the untrue thing.

LRB 25 September 2003 | PDF Download