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A review by courtneydoss
Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland
2.0
When I first began my quest to read through all 100 of Golden Deer Classics' "100 Books to Read Before You Die", I didn't exactly expect that I would be reading 18th century erotica aboard a flight to Florida. Moreover, I never expected that upon reading said erotica, I would find myself more amused than titillated. However, this journey has been one of many surprises, and "Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" was certainly a surprising entry into the 100 Classics list.
If I had to sum up "Fanny Hill" as simply as possible, I would call it a mixture of Hulu's original series "Harlots" and a rough draft of that novel the principal from "10 Things I Hate About You" was writing. Focusing on a young girl who is manipulated into prostitution, "Fanny Hill" does not offer much in the way of story. The book is formatted as one long letter wherein the intimate details of Fanny's sex life are disclosed ad nauseum one experience after another. Any non-sexual story telling exists only as a segue from one type of sex scene to another, and the parts that are written aren't particularly interesting. The sex scenes themselves are repetitive and full of rather amusing synonyms for the bodily anatomy of the participants; my favorite being "engine of love assaults."
There is no question that "Fanny Hill" is only considered of note because of the time period it was written. First released in 1748, "Fanny Hill" was a groundbreaking piece of writing that shed all semblance of propriety and portrayed female sexuality without pretense. The fact that there were some significant inaccuracies as to the realities of female sexuality was neither here nor there. It was the first of its kind, and because of it the author faced a considerable amount of backlash. He was even arrested, and grew to rue the day that he ever set pen to paper to put down his dirty little fantasies.
For me, "Fanny Hill" holds the same appeal as a Stone Age fertility statue. The presence of breasts or a phallus is far from titillating, and the fascination is purely academic. It was incredibly interesting to get a look at the predecessor of modern erotica, and to see what sort of things tickled people's fancy back in the day. I was particularly surprised by the presence of sexual whipping and homosexual encounters in the novel, as they were quite progressive for the time period. Despite that, the appeal of this novel just doesn't hold up for a modern audience, and there is very little to recommend it beyond that curiosity factor.
If I had to sum up "Fanny Hill" as simply as possible, I would call it a mixture of Hulu's original series "Harlots" and a rough draft of that novel the principal from "10 Things I Hate About You" was writing. Focusing on a young girl who is manipulated into prostitution, "Fanny Hill" does not offer much in the way of story. The book is formatted as one long letter wherein the intimate details of Fanny's sex life are disclosed ad nauseum one experience after another. Any non-sexual story telling exists only as a segue from one type of sex scene to another, and the parts that are written aren't particularly interesting. The sex scenes themselves are repetitive and full of rather amusing synonyms for the bodily anatomy of the participants; my favorite being "engine of love assaults."
There is no question that "Fanny Hill" is only considered of note because of the time period it was written. First released in 1748, "Fanny Hill" was a groundbreaking piece of writing that shed all semblance of propriety and portrayed female sexuality without pretense. The fact that there were some significant inaccuracies as to the realities of female sexuality was neither here nor there. It was the first of its kind, and because of it the author faced a considerable amount of backlash. He was even arrested, and grew to rue the day that he ever set pen to paper to put down his dirty little fantasies.
For me, "Fanny Hill" holds the same appeal as a Stone Age fertility statue. The presence of breasts or a phallus is far from titillating, and the fascination is purely academic. It was incredibly interesting to get a look at the predecessor of modern erotica, and to see what sort of things tickled people's fancy back in the day. I was particularly surprised by the presence of sexual whipping and homosexual encounters in the novel, as they were quite progressive for the time period. Despite that, the appeal of this novel just doesn't hold up for a modern audience, and there is very little to recommend it beyond that curiosity factor.