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The Truth About Those ‘Harlots’ Sex Scenes

By Meghan O'Keefe @megsokay

Published March 30, 2017, 9:30 a.m. ET

From *Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies:*
"This lady is neither handsome, well dressed, well lodged, nor well bred; yet she will give more delight than most of the finical dames, who think they do their gallants a favour to admit their embraces at a high price. This humble girl is thankful for a crown, and will testify her gratitude in what ever way you choose, she is willing to appear in the dress of pure nature, as her skin is without spot or blemish, her breasts small and plump, and her limbs well turned and well proportioned. It is her joy to give joy, and she omits no means of procuring it; though her compliance is ample, she is so reserved in her demand that she takes what is given, and does not, like too many of her sisterhood, seize the minute just preceding the moment of ecstasy to demand more, and either proceed or draw back as her demands are gratified or not...She has lately been to visit her parents in Derbyshire, and is now returned a tolerable fresh piece again. [Annotation: Miss Cowper]"GIF: Hulu

From *Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies:*
"Should the man of pleasure take a nocturnal ramble into this lady's lodgings, and be happy enough to find her at home and alone, he need not with himself for that night be under the influence of any other star than that of Venus; as she will very agreeably make the dullest hours to pass away with the soft music of love, and beat time to its silent harmony in all the luxury of soft delight; she is of a fine brunette complexion, hazel eyes, which beam inexpressibly sweet, remarkable fine teeth, plump firm bubbies, and a stately carriage; Her price is from two guineas upwards, to any sum the gentleman she obliges thinks she merits; which at the blooming age of twenty cannot be too much. Had she less partiality for a certain hair dresser, we think she would be more pleasing to the generality of her visitors. [Annotation: Miss Morris]"GIF: Hulu

From *Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies:*
"I hope none of our readers will prove a Mr. L-d-tt, who, about fix months ago, from a mere silly quarrel with this his favourite fair, thought it convenient to finish his existence in the leaden way; she does not possess either youth or novelty sufficient to tempt many, to act in that way, having been at least seven years a trading nymph to our knowledge; she is tall, and genteelly made, with a fine skin, and beautiful flaxen hair, but is too fond of the brandy bottle to give that sincere delight, that mutual interchange of souls, so necessary to stamp the ecstatic rapture; she may, however, prove to those that will drink a glass with her, and has no objection to become as merry as herself, a desirable piece, as she is neither extravagant in her demands, or nice in the choice of her admirers. [Annotation: Miss Brown]" GIF: Hulu

From *Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies:*
"Without possessing any particular attracting charms this lady pleases, and has many admirers. Her face is agreeable without being pretty, she is well made, without being strictly genteel; and a friend to mirth and good humour, without vulgarity. She carries on a snug good trade, without going much abroad, and is, in bed, a very amorous companion..no one that has three guineas in his pocket, ought to be against parting with two thirds to oblige her. [Annotation: Miss Molesworth]GIF: Hulu

From *Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies:*
"She is of the middle size, light hair, blue eyes, and about twenty-two; she is a very agreeable companion, sings a good song, and is a buxom, lively, luscious bed-fellow, but has nothing remarkable above the common run of women of the town, who are young and handsome; she has been a sportswoman in the Cyprian Games* about five years, and always expects two pounds two* before she is mounted. [Annotation: Miss Douglass]"GIF: Hulu

Where to Stream:

Harlots

Hulu’s newest original drama Harlots shows an incredibly nuanced depiction of sex work, but that means it also shows a lot of sex. And we mean a lot.

So where did co-creators Moira Buffini and Alison Newman get the seedy inspiration for this tale? It turns out they got it at the library. Newman passed along an old book called Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies to Buffini and Buffini fell in love with it. It’s not a carefully constructed novel nor is it a feminist manifesto. Instead, it’s basically the “yelp” of London prostitution. The book was published from 1757 through 1795. Each new addition gave poetic reviews of various prostitutes, their skills and their charms.

“I’m always, in all my work drawn to strong women, for various different reasons,” Buffini told me after the show’s TCA panel in January. “My friend Alison Newman, my co-creator, just put this book into my hand at exactly the right time and said, ‘You know, just read this.’ We felt exactly the same way, that there was such a big story here. We knew it was television, we knew it wasn’t a movie. We knew it was television because it just expands so much story to be told about these women’s lives and it just seemed to us so exciting and fresh. Really it had a sort of voice to it. It was just different as it allowed you, it allowed me as a dramatist to evolve language, humor, to write something really ambitious.”

An excerpt from Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies, 1788.Ketingas Press, Kindle Edition

Harlots literally opens with young Lucy Wells (Eloise Smyth) taking the latest edition of Harris’s back to her mother’s brothel, where the girls obsess over their reviews. These reviews are largely fictional, but they evoke the nature of the original ones. Today, it’s easy to get your hands on an edition of the book. I was able to get an electronic edition of the 1788 edition downloaded on my Kindle for just a couple of bucks.

Buffini told me that her co-creator Alison Newman was on point for all of the historical research. “I was busy writing other things, but she phoned me up from the British library and go, ‘I just want you to listen to this,’ and she’d read me some fantastic thing that she’d found,” Buffini told me. “It’s like a little cure, you know the re-virgining device and it’s like the phrase, ‘the pineapple of Great Britain.’ ‘She’s the very pineapple of Great Britain.’ Just little pearls we kept finding, little pearls.”

She continued: “It was really, really wonderful reading from the history books, but it was always the voice of the Georgians. It was the first person narrative that we found, it was the stories written about the harlots that we just loved, devoured. It was all that source material that really, really inspired us. It was the words of the time and really realizing that although the mortality rate was sky high and life was just so nasty, short, and brutal, really, what an amazingly humorous, victorious, colorful society it was. Where wit was prized almost as much as beauty.”

The sex in Harlots is revolutionary for another reason: It’s depicted from the female point of view. Harlots is made by all-female writers, directors, and producers. There are 22 main female parts throughout the eight-part series and each of those characters has a three-dimensional personality. Still, it’s fascinating that the whole thing, this sprawling universe of heartbreak and vice, was inspired by a relatively slim volume of reviews. What other long-lost stories are locked away in the back shelves of your local library?

So, just for fun, we made a gallery of some of the premiere’s steamiest scenes along with actual reviews from Harris’s. Can you spot the inspiration?

Stream Harlots on Hulu

Buy Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies on Amazon