The Harlot's Handbook

Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies was a bestseller of the 18th century with more than 250,000 copies sold in an age before mass consumerism. Jack Harris, the so-called Pimp-General-of-All-England, published an annual guidebook detailing the names, locations, and specialties of all of London’s prostitutes. During its heyday Harris’s List was the essential accessory for any serious gentleman of pleasure, yet beyond its titillating passages lies a glimpse into the lives of numerous Georgian-era women. Ranging from the ribald to the bizarre, collected here are the funniest and most surreal of Harris’s entries.