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A review by jenn756
Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland
3.0
I asked my daughter to buy me books for my birthday from the '1000 books to read before you die' list. Of course she goes and buys me all the rude ones, so I get Lady's Chatterley's Lover, Lolita, the Golden Ass (possibly not rude but funny title) and Fanny Hill. She didn't buy Delta of Venus, but that's probably because she thought it was a planetary formation.
So I've dutifully read it and yes it's porn, very wordy porn and lots of adventurous words demonstrating admirable verbal dexterity. To give Cleland his due, he did write from the perspective of a woman, and a woman who enjoys herself at that. Fanny manages to squeeze a lot into her youth, she's only turning 19 when the book finishes. Of course Cleland doesn't touch much on pregnancy and not at all on venereal disease. The 18th century prostitute would have been an incubator for virtually every disease known to man, I can't imagine a more unhealthy profession. But fortunately for Fanny she bounces through unscathed, marries her teenage sweetheart and accrues a fortune along the way - oh no, whoops I've given the plot away....
So I've dutifully read it and yes it's porn, very wordy porn and lots of adventurous words demonstrating admirable verbal dexterity. To give Cleland his due, he did write from the perspective of a woman, and a woman who enjoys herself at that. Fanny manages to squeeze a lot into her youth, she's only turning 19 when the book finishes. Of course Cleland doesn't touch much on pregnancy and not at all on venereal disease. The 18th century prostitute would have been an incubator for virtually every disease known to man, I can't imagine a more unhealthy profession. But fortunately for Fanny she bounces through unscathed, marries her teenage sweetheart and accrues a fortune along the way - oh no, whoops I've given the plot away....