Queen of the Courtesans

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A01=Barbara White
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Barbara White
automatic-update
beau nash
brothels
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BGH
Category=DNBH
Category=HBLL
Category=JBFW
Category=JFMX
Category=N
COP=United Kingdom
courtesan
covent garden|london stews
david ross
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
fame
fanny murray
fashion icon
georgian beauty
hell-fire club
hellfire club
high court
high-class courtesan
jack spencer
john wilkes
king of bath
Language_English
libel
london society
lovers
monks of medmenham
muse
notoriety
obscene poem
PA=Available
pornography case
Price_€20 to €50
prostitute
prostitution
PS=Active
purchaseable beauty
sarah duchess of marlborough
softlaunch
women in history
women's history

Product details

  • ISBN 9780752468693
  • Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
  • Publication Date: 02 Jun 2014
  • Publisher: The History Press Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
  • Language: English
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days

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Fanny Murray was an incomparable Georgian beauty and the most desired courtesan of the 1750s. The daughter of an impoverished musician from Bath, she took London society by storm, not only as the most prized ‘purchaseable beauty’ of her day, but also as a fashion icon and muse to poets, writers and artists. She counted princes, aristocrats and politicians among her friends and lovers, but relished the company of rogues, fraudsters and ne’er-do-wells. Barbara White presents evidence to suggest that Fanny Murray participated spiritedly in the sexual antics of the notorious ‘Monks of Medmenham’, the most infamous of the Hell-fire Clubs. After she retired from prostitution, Fanny Murray reinvented herself, entering a pragmatic marriage with the Scottish actor David Ross. Surprisingly, her virtues as a devoted and faithful wife became almost proverbial. Even so, Murray could not escape her disreputable past. In 1763, a scurrilous poem dedicated to her caused a national scandal that ended in the infamous trial of the radical politician John Wilkes for obscene libel.

Barbara White’s portrait of Fanny Murray takes readers from the brothels of Covent Garden to sex romps at Medmenham Abbey, from refined drawing rooms in London to marital respectability in Edinburgh. This is an illuminating contribution to the scholarly understanding and popular appreciation of a complex and intriguing period of British history. Fanny Murray’s triumph – against almost insuperable odds – is a remarkable story, as rich in the telling as it is enthralling.