stefhyena 's review for:

Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland

1.0

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Even though in many points I agree with the critics, I don't agree that the female characters, especially Fanny were completely passive and helpless. There was a certain agency in not allowing the disgusting guy to "deflower" her and also in going to Charles rather than staying with the madam. I also liked traces of sarcasm I thought I detected about class and about the silly concept of "virginity" and the high value attached to it for no good reason. The strong friendships between female characters (especially Mrs Cole and her girls) also were nice. That said it was porn. It was boring, repetitive. It was a man writing what he imagines a woman's point of view is (or thinks it ought to be) and as a consequence very heteronormative (actual homophobia comes into the second half of the book but the naturalisation of a narrowly conceived heterosexuality is throughout. There is also a sometimes hilarious, but mostly irritating phallocentrism. This idea that women can only really be satisfied by penis and that if it is painful that is all the better.

One of the studs she got with had a "maypole" which was pretty hilarious.

All in all I don;t recommend it. There are better classics. There is worse porn though. The constant argument for treating women with respect and courtesy to prostitutes is a well made point that is still topical in 21st century world. So ok...I managed to finish reading it.

It has a sweet happy ending. I like it because it's not the "woman gets treated badly but by constant love wins hero" the hero always treats her with respect and consequently actually deserves her love. So ok one and a half stars. I can't give it more because I got so sick of penises tearing their way into every female character all the time.