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    Fanny Hill (Harper Perennial Forbidden Classics)
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    Fanny Hill (Harper Perennial Forbidden Classics)
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    Fanny Hill (Harper Perennial Forbidden Classics)
    Ebook276 pages5 hours

    Fanny Hill (Harper Perennial Forbidden Classics)

    By John Cleland

    3/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 15, 2010
    ISBN9780007372058
    Author

    John Cleland

    John Cleland wrote 'Fanny Hill', also known as 'Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure', in two instalments whilst serving time in Fleet Prison for a bad debt. In 1749, Cleland was arrested for obscenity, yet denied responsibility for the novel. The book was officially withdrawn, and not officially published again for a hundred years. However, it continued to sell well and was published in pirate editions.

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    Reviews for Fanny Hill (Harper Perennial Forbidden Classics)

    3/5

    370 ratings28 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This classic erotic work distinguishes itself from its peers in some ways. Its use of euphemism completely avoids any 'rude' words, though it describes a number of pornographic scenes in detail. Although written by a man, Fanny seems a genuine character, and the scenes she describes follow each other logically instead of the combinatorial excess found in other pornographic works. Fanny also has definite sexual preferences although she is not averse to experimentation. As a 'mistress of pleasure' she was a relatively lucky one with a minimum of bad experiences. Finally, and this is where the book really diverges from the norm, she finds love and even promotes love as more important than (or at least as important as) sexual gratification.
    • 4/5
      Gorgeous language; for all its transparent euphemisms, total porn. Love it, though Cleland really does not need to use the word "vermillion" quite so much.Also Fanny is a bit close-minded about certain things, which the afterword in this edition describes as "the more outlandish practices [...] such as sodomy, lesbianism and flagellation". For the latter two cases it notes Fanny describing the tastes of Phoebe and Mr Barvile as "arbitrary" and "unaccountable" (though she participates with both without regretting it). This much suits said afterward's thematic discourse very well, so it promptly forgets to mention that she describes the instance of sodomy she witnesses as "odious" and "criminal". She'd even dob in the people involved if she didn't trip over herself in her haste and half knock herself out; and when she tells Mrs Cole about it, the latter says a good deal nastier.I would dearly love to see some fanfic in which Charles discovers her memoir and, having had his own experiences while at sea, educates her (through explanation, narration, and some pleasant demonstration or two) about the wonders of the masculine "seat of pleasure"....
    • 4/5
      This is what happens when you read too much Alan Moore.

      I actually enjoyed this story more than I thought. I wasn't really sure what to expect, it's porn after all. I liked the disruptions though. Some of them read liked a regular novel and some (most the sex scenes) got overly ridiculous which made the book fun. Most of this was dated though. I'll give it slack for being one of the earliest erotica novels in English. Modern erotic novelist, such as Anaïs Nin, are better, in my opinion.
    • 2/5
      The youthful me did read this bit of pornography. Frankly, by the age of 19, I had read better than this. Even as an artifact that revealed something about the society of it birth, it is just not a good book. Perhaps it was socially useful for revealing the fact that women did have orgasms, but that's it.
    • 3/5
      Well, it's a classic, isn't it? The eroticism is a bit tame by modern standards but it's an interesting read, and must have been explosive in its own time.
    • 2/5
      must have been the fifty shades of it's day... too much in the way of silly euphemisms for me, and the sheer silliness of finding Charles again in a tavern - a coincidence a little too far..
    • 3/5
      Memoirs Of Fanny Hill has been called the first pornographic book and it is one of the most banned books ever. I stumbled upon Memoirs Of Fanny Hill on my iTouch Classic Books app. Would I consider it a classic? I'd consider it classic porn, which is a genre I've never read. The story is written in two parts. In the first part of the story we get to know Frances Hill and how she became a prostitute at a young age. She was born to a poor family in Liverpool. At age fifteen, both her parents died of smallpox. She was brought to London by a family friend and is abandoned there. Fanny is looking to work as a housemaid and stumbles unknowingly upon a whorehouse run by a Mrs. Brown who takes Fanny in and tells her her 'maidenhead' will fetch a good price. Fanny continues to live the life of a prostitute, but as time passes, she becomes smarter. In the second half of the story we see a more experienced Fanny. By the end of the story, she is nineteen years old. Throughout the book she recollects her many lovers and sexual encounters. There is plenty of sex in the plot. Same sex partners, light bondage and lashings, to a full-on orgy are all in the storyline. Voyeurism was a sort of past-time for a few of the characters in this story, they always seemed to find a peep-hole available. It's all very scandalous and shocking, especially considering this book was written in 1749. (way before my beloved Pride & Prejudice) This was a spicy read, even by today's standards. I'm surprised that he wrote the story without any outright vile language. I found the writing to be well done. John Cleland would definitely give some erotic fiction writers a run for their money. However, I did laugh at some of the word use. The author uses the funniest names while referring to the male form. The engine of love assaults, enormous machine, IT, staff of love and object of terror and delight, just to name a few. He describes female pubic hair as the richest sable fur in the universe. I'm sorry, but I laughed out loud while reading that!All in all, this was an unexpected read for me and I enjoyed it enough to keep reading. I finished it in two sittings. It was bawdy and scandalous and I did wonder what would become of Fanny. I read that author John Cleland and the publishers and printer of Fanny Hill were arrested shortly after publication. The novel of course, continued to sell in pirated forms. Sex does sell, no matter what century we're in.
    • 2/5
      How extraordinary that a man thinks himself capable of writing an erotic novel from a woman's viewpoint. It's highly unlikely that Fanny considered her deflowering and professional life to be the mere larks that Cleland made them out to be. Pure fantasy and a man's fantasy at that.
    • 4/5
      be warned, this book, written in 1749, & having for at least 200 years been banned before it was ever allowed to be seen on these shores, is a classic example of 18th century erotica. it tells the story of Fanny, & young country girl, who loses her parents to an illness, probably smallpox, & ends up traveling with a young woman of better means to London, where is she is abandoned a second time, & falls in with a madam. She has a series of adventures, but never loses her heart to any other man but her beloved Charles, who was lost to her when his father sent him on an ocean voyage to recover a fortune. Because most of you will never read this or even want to read it due to the content, Fanny eventually makes her way in the world, becomes a respectable woman, & through sheer chance, finds her beloved Charles in a driving rainstorm at at inn where he is stopping on his way to London by horse, & she to the country to visit a friend by coach. Of course, they eventually wed, & she writes her memoirs from the vantage point of a much loved wife & mother who recalls her past history.A lot of it is a little "detailed", LOL, & may make some readers uncomfortable, but it really is kind of cute in a way. I got a laugh out of it, it's much more entertaining than modern erotica, that's for sure.At the last, it really is a love story, & the ending left me happy.
    • 3/5
      Despite its age and obvious differences in style from modern works, I found this book quite interesting beyond the never ending descriptions of the main character's sexual encounters. True, the author relies heavily upon (to the modern reader) long winded descriptions of sex in much detail. Beyond that, however, there were some interesting insights into the male perspectives. In particular, I was fascinated by the sections describing how wealthy, intelligent men can be "duped" into believing just about anything from a woman they desire. Apparently things have not changed much over the centuries.
    • 3/5
      I read about Fanny Hill many years ago, and was always curious about the book. Somehow, I never did manage to get my hand on a copy until one evening, when I had to wait for my daughter, and my IPad froze. I toodled off to a book store, and found this book.Now, the book is about the sexual life of the young lady, Fanny Hill, and how she stumbled, from a life of poverty into prostitution. She was taken advantage off, when she was orphaned in her teens, and thus the story begins. The book is replete with sexual themes, and is a continuous romp through the dales of sexuality. In this sense, I can quite understand how this would have completely shocked the sense of public morality in more conservative times. Having said that, the writing is elegant and not at all obscene. About twenty years ago, I would have been greatly charmed through the length of the book. As it so happens, at my current stage in life, I wearied of the book about three quarters down the length, and just wished that they would get on with it!
    • 2/5
      When it comes to books, sex isn't everything - it's 'story' that matters. Apart from the sex scenes there was little else to engage the reader - or this one, at least.Like most texts from the 1700s - this being published in 1749 - there are too many long-winded sentences held together by unearthly punctuation. Commas are, indeed, in abundance; semi-colons keep sentences alive way beyond their sell-by date; as for colons: sometimes there are three per epic sentence.I feel this novel would've worked better if there had been a stronger storyline, thus giving the sex scenes more prominence. Fewer sex scenes would, I believe, have enhanced the story. With so many erotic encounters the reader comes to expect them rather than look forward to them. Less is more, you might say. I also believe this would've been a better novel had it been given regular chapters and included a decent amount of dialogue. Having two long chapters, featuring paragraphs that stretch on for miles, with hardly any dialogue, made this hard work for me. So much so that by the second half of the book I was skipping more and more sections. What I do admire is the author's ability to describe sexual acts in fine detail without using a single profanity. Many writers from, say, the 1920s onwards would have had difficulty in this department.
    • 5/5
      Indexed (well, not Pius IV, but whatever)Banned smut is my favorite fashion of smut. If your work has been blacklisted, then I am a fan. Of course, Fanny Hill: Memoirs Of A Woman of Pleasure is redolent in this charge. The work has been abused by parochial souls, dragged through puritan circumspect, called out and sinned against by one moral majority after another. Mr. J. Cleland knew something of the Orient, but, alas, this makes no appearance in this novel. Maybe I do wish to critique the writer. I shall do so but for, let us hope, the right reasons—none of which have anything to do with that ugly puritanism that has for so long shortened the sights of Occidental fuckery.I have enjoyed this novel very much. I only read it last week. Though I’ve known about, known of, this story for some time, I only downloaded it on my Kindle recently.The plot is one of “corruption.” A beautiful theme if done correctly, corruption means here that some young female thing falls from stupid innocence to gutter-sucking puss-buggery. The hit-and-love dimension of my perfect soul is much angered that the teenage girl character, our Fanny, never learns the joy in blood-wet sex. Despite Fanny’s first encounters of the flesh being sapphist (and here Cleland does well), the silly tart never rams her forearm up anyone’s bunghole. The feminist in me cannot do without a binge of anal-boy rape. To shame, Cleland, to shame.No Sex in Your Violence (yes, yes, and I've gotta machine head as well)To an honest appraisal I conduct this swath of tilted letters. Damn the French, damn de Sade, from whom I've stolen my name. You’ve soured my brain to anything but what I want most now these days. No joy, let alone ecstasy, is really permissible without physical or mental, that is, all physiological really, destruction...The language itself is a treat; I can easily grant this. So much smut today is smut because it is shit. It is smut for the wrong reasons. It doesn’t even attempt perversion. Big, overzealous, perfidious, pestiferous diction is what I love. And, on occasion, Cleland’s “machines” (what a wonderful moniker for a ribald penis, no?) are wordsmith-worthy. At the very least, having composed this in the 18th century means that, by default, the language is already scrumptious—the English language. Nothing about this pornography in prose of Cleland has anything even remotely American about it.Highly RecommendedOh, and I did mention the Orient above because the writer spent some time on the subcontinent. This was when Mumbai was Bombay and colonialism was still profitable.In conclusion, I recommend that you consume Fanny Hill when wearing your dress, the summer dress that flaps about in the wind and is easily turned up. I did rub myself. This is smut, English smut. A minx in mind is a minx in heart is a minx in thought and dreams and soul and spirit. Yes, ignore my sad sadist reservations.Fanny Hill is a treat and one that is to be enjoyed for the ages.Love always, -V. de S
    • 4/5
      England, London, ca 1700-1750En ung forældreløs pige Fanny på 15 år sendes til London, hvor hun hurtigt havner i et bordel, for hun er virkelig ung og naiv. Hun forelsker sig i en af kunderne Charles og til sidst får hun ham efter at have gået så grueligt meget igennem.Bogen er delt op i 2 x 5 kapitler.???
    • 4/5
      Don’t read this book if you dislike graphic descriptions of sex, because it’s chock full of it. Written in 1748, it’s very easy to see why it was banned for more than two centuries. “Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure”, more commonly known by the title of one if it’s later edited down versions, “Fanny Hill”, reads like soft-core porn. There is a semblance of a story: young Fanny Hill (wink wink, a synonym for mons veneris) is orphaned and taken by a family “friend” to London, where she’s promptly abandoned. She’s only 15, but men and boarding house madams have no qualms about preying on her. She quickly adapts, going through several sexual relationships and prostitution, but far from coming to actual harm, she enjoys it. She progresses from nervous virgin to ‘woman of pleasure’, more than willing to submit and experiment. Critics point out that it’s male fantasy, and they’re certainly correct, but in one sense it seemed as honest to me, even as fantasy, compared with almost all other fiction before the 20th century, which completely avoid the subject of sex as if it doesn’t exist at all. Cleland, on the other hand, takes it to an extreme. I counted 30 (yes, 30!) sex scenes in the 188 pages in the two volumes. That’s about one scene every six pages, and as each scene is typically a few pages long … well, this book is probably 50% sex by page count alone, and 95% sex by intention. Cleland cloaks it in a love interest and points out that sex without love isn’t the same, but it’s clearly just a vehicle for him to explicitly describe fantasy after fantasy, progressively getter edgier as he goes. The positions start off pretty basic, but in volume two they get more diverse (I’ll spare you the details), and there is voyeurism, sex in front of other couples, one scene of S&M, and one scene of (gasp) homosexuality, though for that one Cleland has Fanny quickly (and hypocritically) condemn it.Frankly I’m tempted to rate the book higher because all this sex is wrapped up in beautiful, quaint 18th century language which I smiled over and found pretty erotic at times, it’s so unique for the time period, and it points out ways sex is the same throughout the centuries, and ways it (or our understanding of it) was different. It’s interesting to me that the female orgasm was thought to involve an emission, and that oral sex plays no part here at all. However, I have to be balanced. It’s so overkill in quantity that the power of any one scene is reduced. You may have to read it concurrently with another book as I did, which is rare for me, because it’s hard to stay “in the mood” for nonstop sex descriptions at all times of day while reading (or while others are around, lol). There are a few scenes that resemble reality, e.g. men who are either hideous or less than virile, but by and large it’s so over-the-top in fantasy, and includes cringe-inducing scenes where Fanny is basically raped, taken by force, but goes along with it and enjoys it. This edition was also annoying despite a great cover, showing Boucher’s “Reclining Girl” from 1751, an eye-goggling classic from Munich’s Alte Pinakothek. The font was too small, and the annotated explanatory notes were not only repetitive and obvious at times, but also committed the cardinal sin of revealing the ending, ruining what little plot there was. Grrr. It’s as if the editor was the annoying kid who constantly needs to raise his hand in class. If you do read it, I’d suggest something other than ‘Oxford World’s Classics’.Anyway, would the book be better if Cleland toned down the sex, introduced some of the horrors of prostitution (STD’s, violence, addiction, depression), and peered realistically into a frightened, traumatized girl’s psyche? Definitely. But I suppose then it wouldn’t be Fanny Hill. But I’m glad it survives, and I’m glad I read it.
    • 3/5
      “(T)here (is) no dress like an undress.”

      This pithy bit of wit (on p. 110 of the 2001 Modern Library paperback edition, which I just read) is about as close to a maxim as John Cleland — in the mouth (or at least the thoughts) of Fanny Hill comes.

      Cleland writes in an appropriately corseted Victorian vernacular. This particular edition maintains his peculiar spelling, syntax and punctuation, all of which present certain obstacles to a contemporary reader. Lucky for us, the subject-matter presents no such obstacle. Eminently more readable (and less laughable) than Anne Desclos’s (nom de plume: Pauline Réage) Story of O, Fanny Hill or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure contains many of the same elements so sportingly penned by Henry Fielding in Tom Jones — complete with happy ending. John Cleland, however, is no Henry Fielding. If the definition of ‘circumlocution’ in Webster or the OED doesn’t say ‘cf. John Cleland’s Fanny Hill,’ it ought to!

      There’s a wee bit of popular wisdom in Fanny Hill, an example of which can be found on p. 93: “We may say what we please, but those we can be the easiest and freest with are ever those we like, not to say love the best.” And yes — as several critics suggest — there’s ample irony, particularly in Volume II. “(A)ll my looks and gestures ever breathing nothing but that innocence which the men so ardently require in us, for no other end than to feast themselves with the pleasure of destroying it, and which they are so grievously, with all their skill, subject to mistakes in (on p. 149)”; and “(as) no condition of life is more subject to revolutions than that of a woman of pleasure, I soon recover’d my chearfulness (sic), and now beheld myself once more struck off the list of kept-mistresses, and return’d into the bosom of the community, from which I had been in some manner taken (on p. 162).”

      And how does Fanny (i.e., John Cleland) conclude her tale other than through a happy reunion with her first lover—and only real love? Permit me to quote at length from p. 174: “You may be sure a by-job of this sort interfer’d with no other pursuit, or plan of life, which I led in truth with a modesty and reserve that was less the work of virtue, than of exhausted novelty, a glut of pleasure, and easy circumstances, that made me indifferent to any engagements in which pleasure and profit were not eminently united; and such I could with the less impatience wait for at the hands of time and fortune, as I was satisfied I could never mend my pennyworths, having evidently been serv’d at the top of the market, and even been pamper’d with dainties…”.

      As Gary Gautier suggests (in almost inscrutably convoluted academic jargon) in his Introduction, and as Liza Minnelli, in the 1972 film version “Cabaret,” had so lustily sung. “money makes the world go around, the world go around, the world go around…”.

      Do I recommend a reading of Fanny Hill? Absolutely and without equivocation! After all, sex has been an appropriate topic of literary discourse here in the Western world since the Ancient Greeks (Sappho) and the Ancient Romans (Ovid and Catullus). Boccaccio, Rabelais, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Sterne, Fielding, Cleland & Co. merely embellished upon the genre, each in his own particular way.

      RRB
      08/17/13
      Brooklyn, NY
    • 2/5
      A girl becomes a prostitute before making good and marrying her true love. I found the narrative of the sexual encounters inbetween plodding and rather dull, and was never able to read more than a few pages at one sitting. Despite the detail, I couldn't really see what all the fuss was about.
    • 3/5
      A funny, iconic, but mostly smutty eighteenth century novel about a young provincial lass who travels to London in search of work after her parents die, and naively moves into a brothel. By the time Fanny realises exactly what kind of 'position' she has accepted, the shrewd madam has already initiated Fanny into the tricks and 'delights' of prostitution. Over the course of a few years, Fanny is nearly raped, escapes the brothel to live with her lover, becomes a kept woman, returns to prostitution, has various lovers of different ages, sizes, tastes and duration, witnesses a homosexual tryst, which disgusts Cleland (sorry, disgusts Fanny), and a good time is had by all. Honestly, at first I found the erotic passages quaint and amusing, full of curious euphemisms (the 'cloven stamp of female distinction' and the male 'machine') and repetitive scenes, but then Fanny's cynical narrative voice soon faded into a series of male fantasies where women enjoy being forced into sex. Prostitutes are always pretty and healthy young girls who are in the trade seemingly through personal preference, and the harsh reality of diseases, unwanted pregnancies and rape are not allowed to ruin the illusion. Rape especially, because women who refuse to have sex are just being coy, and can be beaten into submission with that wondrous 'machine'. Fanny Hill is basically a constant and ever inventive series of scenarios, helpfully illustrated by Paul Avril, where heroine Fanny scores a quick poke from wealthy noblemen, doddering old fools, masochists and even the village idiot, and any pretence of plot, prose or morality (Fanny claims to love Charles, but forgets about him completely until the end of the book) is soon abandoned, and then even the sex gets boring! Good for a laugh, if nothing else.
    • 2/5
      Audiobook - well there is a lot of sex. The story is ok I guess - but too much sex with little of much else just did not work for me.
    • 3/5
      There is not one filthy word in this book. And there is barely one non-sexual scene in it. The story of young Fanny's downfall from sexual purity and rise to upper middle-class comfort is infamous, of course and earned Cleland immortality which, based on the writing he hardly deserves. Sometimes it was obvious that he realized how tedious the descriptions of Fanny's various encounters were getting to be. It is curious to think how limited is our ability to describe genitalia and the use thereof. Cleland's choice (or more likely the writing style of the 18th century) to write about sex the way in which he did gave him more nouns and adjectives than the modern writer might use, I thought, but even then, reading about the 'machines' of Fanny's different partners and the ladies' mounds and 'mangled' and suffering parts so endlessly, was tedious indeed. It was far more interesting to wonder about the staying power of this book. I can only assume it has something to do with its reputation and its being one of, if not the first, English erotic novel.Reading it as an 18th century novel, I am able to give it 3 stars. Written at a later time, it would surely rate much lower and garner at least a 4 on the yawn scale.This year I am on the hunt for books found within books. Naturally there are no other books mentioned within this book - Fanny did not seem to have time for or interest in anything other than her throbbing, hungry, nether regions.
    • 3/5
      It's erotica. That pretty much says it all. The story wasn't completely ridiculous, which is pretty good for erotica where plot is often only a minor element used to move from one sexual encounter to the next. The language was laughable by current standards, but given that it was written in the 1700s, I'm sure it was scandalously racy in it's time. I enjoyed some of the sex (when I could get past the wording), and the story didn't bore me. It was a fun and easy read. Great vintage porn.
    • 3/5
      In August 2002 I started the month in the 18th century, reading 'According to Queeney' by Beryl Bainbridge, the story of Samuel Johnson's relationship with Hester Thrale and then 'Fanny Hill' by John Cleland, which is a classic of 18th century erotica.
    • 4/5
      Being that this book was written in the late 18th century, I did not think it could possibly be as erotic as the 18th century folks thought it was. I was wrong. I understand why they did not want their virginal "misses" reading this book. It was definately titillating. When I first started reading the book, I was reminded of [The Crimson Petal and the White]. I wonder if [[Faber]] was inspired by Fanny Hill.Anyway, I liked the book. I do advise reading it at home. I did not take my advice and ended up sitting in the lunchroom blushing from ear to ear.
    • 4/5
      I am utterly prejudiced about this particular edition since I put together this version of Fanny Hill with the great Herb Lubalin. It is a particularly beautiful piece of book-work and I am very proud of it. Oh yes, the writing is loads of fun, and the illustrations are very sweet as well.
    • 3/5
      The most amazing thing about this book was the depth of sexual detail given its time of writing, which I think is around 1800. It's like a Penthouse letter from the time of 'merry old England.'
    • 1/5
      Porn in a Victorian English is still porn. Is porn literature? Leave it long enough and anything becomes literature, it seems. Dated and boring.Edit:Somebody took offence with my throwaway remark about this using Victorian English. (It's really Georgian.) My bad! Wish the commenter could have been nicer about it though!)
    • 3/5
      Well, it's a classic, isn't it? The eroticism is a bit tame by modern standards but it's an interesting read, and must have been explosive in its own time.
    • 4/5
      Fanny Hill is important because of its place in the history of the end of censorship in America, but it's also a fun read. The book takes a positive view of sex generally - the first-person narrator enjoys sex for its own sake, and isn't consumed with guilt over all the sex she has, but she also acknowleges that sometimes bad things happen because of sex or the desire for it. The book is unusual for a book which graphically depicts sex acts in that there are no "dirty words" in the book - the characters don't swear, and the narrator uses coy euphemisms to describe the details.