Georgia Hardstark
speaker
4,112 appearances
38 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Feb 2025
Georgia Hardstark’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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So now all the money she is owed is not coming in. Her debt catches up to her. And before she knows it, she's thrown in prison for failing to make house payments. But life will not get Peg Plunkett down. No, it won't. It just won't. She's a warrior. So as she's sitting in prison, she realizes there's one thing that she still has on her side, and it's the truth.
As a courtesan, her discretion was a huge asset in the success of her business. But now she has no reason to keep quiet about her decades of salacious interludes with the noblemen who will not pay her now.
That's right. She's been a person who has been made to suffer by that concept of reputations all her life. So she's like, fine, let's do the reputation thing.
So she writes to all the men and she's, I think, fair about this where it's like it's blackmail, but she's basically saying she's writing to all of them and saying, you owe me money and I plan to release an intimately detailed tell all book about my life. So the way you keep your name out of this book is you pay me what you owe me. Yeah. Yeah.
Some of them take her seriously and hand over the money. Others doubt her, suspecting either she's bluffing or she couldn't even write a book if she wanted to. And those men that doubted her lose big time because Peg publishes not just one, but three tell-all memoirs about... About her life.
And in every one, she publishes the names of the politicians, military personnel, clergymen, and, you know, like fancy royal guys.
It's like such a brilliant idea. And it's such a like, oh, yeah, fuck all this shit. Like, why would I ever go along with this idea of that? I'm supposed to be the one. Right.
Keep those secrets. And it's like, oh, you're a scumbag that not only. Right. You know, like cheats on your wife for all the reasons that you think it's bad that you're getting caught going to a sex worker.
Why would I keep that secret? You don't even pay your bills.
So the first volume comes out in 1795. It is a massive hit. Of course, the people of Ireland cannot, cannot... Stop. It's selling out. People can't wait to get their hands on what is basically the hottest piece of gossip of their lifetimes.
I know the money Peg earns from the sales of this book is more than enough to pay off her debts to get her out of prison. But the success is so massive. She figures why stop there. Her second volume of memoirs comes out a year later in 1796, and it does just as well as the first. So, of course, Peg decides to write a third book.
But before it hits the shelves in 1797, Peg Plunkett passes away at around 70 years old. We'll never know because you never would admit how old she was.
It seems like it for, yeah, when I would guess median age was like around 50 or 60. I don't know. All three volumes of Peg's memoirs are in the public domain and are available to read online for free. Mm-hmm. Historian Julie Peekman has also compiled a condensed version of the tell-all with her own analysis and commentary called Peg Plunkett Memoirs of a Whore.
While Peg's story is filled with tragedy, it's one that completely upends the expectations of an 18th century, quote, fallen woman. Mm-hmm. Because Peg took the time to write her own story in her own voice, it gave her the chance to humanize her plight and honor her own brilliance and fortitude on her own terms. And that is the story of Irish courtesan, Peg Plunkett. Wow. Yeah. Wow.
Also imagine if like a man wrote her story and how it would turn out. It's like that idea of women actually being the ones to do it so that it's preserved the way they get to represent themselves.
Pretty cool.
Yeah, really good.
This has been an Exactly Right production.
Our managing producer is Hannah Kyle Creighton.
This episode was mixed by Liana Squillace.
Showing 1181–1200 of 4,112 · page 60 of 206
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