Scan barcode
A review by caughtbetweenpages
Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland
No rating because... I don't even know how to rate this actually.
I don't think my setting/character/plot method works because it's mostly just smut. It's a weird collection of quasi-empowerment and shaming sex workers, of allowing women agency and weird homophobic (m/m) rants... I don't know. It also icks me out that an adult man was writing a young woman's sexual awakening (like, age 16 I think? She ends the book at just under 19 years old) and then goes, after writing smut, on a soapbox speech about how the only RIGHT way to be is to get married and only enjoy sex if married to someone you love. I really don't know.
I DO stand by being fascinated that this exists, though. Victorians.....
I don't think my setting/character/plot method works because it's mostly just smut. It's a weird collection of quasi-empowerment and shaming sex workers, of allowing women agency and weird homophobic (m/m) rants... I don't know. It also icks me out that an adult man was writing a young woman's sexual awakening (like, age 16 I think? She ends the book at just under 19 years old) and then goes, after writing smut, on a soapbox speech about how the only RIGHT way to be is to get married and only enjoy sex if married to someone you love. I really don't know.
I DO stand by being fascinated that this exists, though. Victorians.....