276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Wordsworth Classics)

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

N2 - John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure has been described as the first erotic novel in English and is perhaps the greatest example of the genre. From the outset it was mired in disrepute. Cleland penned the novel to liberate himself from debtors’ prison, and the book’s manifestly lewd content led to its legal suppression within a year of publication. Though versions of the novel, nearly always abridged in some form, continued to find a way into print, the Memoirs remained an underground text until the 1960s. Only as that decade ushered in a culture less socially deferential and more sexually permissive was the moment opportune for the obscenity ban to be successfully challenged. Cleland’s novel is a triumph of literary style, resting on his invention of an entirely new, vividly metaphoric, terminology for describing sexual pleasure.This Broadview Edition provides a new text of the original novel alongside extensive materials on Cleland’s biography and career, contemporary censorship, and pornography and prostitution in the eighteenth century. In the mean time, one could not help observing the swell of his shirt before, that bolster'd out, and pointed out the condition of things behind the curtain: but he soon remov'd it, by slipping his shirt over his head; and now, as to ​nakedness, they had nothing to reproach one another. The Mayflower case highlighted the growing disconnect between the obscenity laws and the permissive society that was developing in late 1960s Britain, and was instrumental in shifting views to the point where in 1970 an uncensored version of Fanny Hill was again published in Britain. He made suppers at my lodgings, where he brought several companions of his pleasures, with their mistresses, and by this means I got into a circle of acquaintance that soon strip'd me of all the remains of bashfulness and modesty which might be yet left of my country education, and were, to a just taste, perhaps, the greatest of my Charms. My eyes were instantly fill'd with tears, but tears of the most delicious delight. To find myself in the arms of that beauteous youth, was a rapture that my little heart swam in. Past or future were equally out of the question with me. The present was as much as all my powers of life were sufficient to bear the transport of without fainting. Nor were the most tender embraces, the most soothing expressions wanting on his side, to assure me of his love, and of never giving me cause to repent the bold step I had taken, in throwing myself thus entirely upon his honour and generosity: but, alas! this was no merit in me, for I was drove to it by a passion too impetuous for me to resist, and I did what I did, because I could not help it.

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure/Letter the First Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure/Letter the First

As to Mr. H ———, he was so much my superior in every sense, that I felt it too much to the disadvantage of the gratitude I ow'd him, thus he gain'd my esteem though he could not raise my taste; I was qualify'd for no sort of conversation with him, except one sort, and that is a satisfaction which leaves tiresome intervals, if not fill'd up by love, or other amusements. My education, till past fourteen, was no better than very vulgar; reading, or rather spelling, an illegible scrawl, and a little ordinary plain-work, composed the whole system of it: and then all my foundation in virtue was no other than a total ignorance of vice, and the shy timidity general to our sex, in the tender stage of life, when objects alarm, or frighten more by their novelty, than any thing else: but then this is a fear too often cured at the expence of innocence, when Miss, by degrees, begins no longer to look on man as a creature of prey that will eat her. When I saw him thus mov'd, and fir'd for my purpose, I inflam'd him yet more, by asking him several leading questions; such as, "had he a mistress? ——— was she prettier than me? ——— could he love such a one as I was? ——— and ​the like;" to all which the blushing simpleton answer'd to my wish, in a strain of perfect nature, perfect undebauch'd innocence, but with all the aukwardness and simplicity of country-breeding. None of the story's scenes have been exempt from illustration. Illustrations of this novel vary from the first homosexual experience to the flagellation scene. Hitherto I had been indebted only to the girls of the house for the corruption of my innocence: their luscious talk, in which modesty was far from respected, their description of their engagements with men, had given me a tolerable insight into the nature and mysteries of their profession, at the same time that they highly provok'd an itch of florid warm-spirited blood through every vein; but above all, my bed-fellow Phœbe, whose pupil I more immediately was, exerted her talents in giving me the first tinctures of pleasure: whilst nature, now warm'd, and wantoned with discoveries so interesting, piqu'd a curiosity which Phœbe artfully whetted, and leading me from question to question of her own suggestion, explain'd to me ​all the mysteries of Venus; but I could not long remain in such an house as that, without being an eye-witness of more than I could conceive from her descriptions.One day about twelve at noon, being thoroughly recover'd of my fever, I happen'd to be in Mrs. Brown 's dark closet, where I had not been half an hour, resting upon the maids settle-bed, before I heard a rustling in the bed-chamber, separated from the closet only by two sash-doors, before the glasses of which were drawn two yellow-damask curtains, but not so close as to exclude the full view of the room from any person in the closet. A critical edition by Peter Sabor includes a bibliography and explanatory notes. [5] The collection Launching "Fanny Hill" contains several essays on the historical, social and economic themes underlying the novel. [6] Publishing history [ edit ]

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure - Wikisource

Easily then reading in my eyes the full permission of myself to all his wishes, he scarce pleas'd himself more than me, when having insinuated his hand under my petticoat and shift, he presently remov'd those bars to the sight, by slily lifting them upwards, under favour of a thousand kisses, which he thought, perhaps, necessary to divert my attention to what he was about. All my drapery being now roll'd up to my waist, I threw myself into such a posture upon the couch, as gave up to him, in full view, the whole region of delight, and all the luxurious landscape round it. The transported youth devour'd every thing with his eyes, and try'd with his fingers to lay more open to his sight the secrets of that dark and delicious deep: he opens the folding lips, the softness of which yielding entry to any thing of a hard body, close round it, and oppose the sight: and feeling further, meets with, and wonders at, a soft ​fleshy excrescence, which, limber and relax'd after the late enjoyment, now grew, under the touch and examination of his fiery fingers, more and more stiff and considerable, till the titillating ardours of that so sensible part, made me sigh, as if he had hurt me. On which he withdrew his curious probing fingers, asking me pardon, as it were, in a kiss that rather increas'd the flame there.Phœbe lay down by me, and ask'd me archly, if now that I had seen the enemy, and fully considered him, I was still afraid of him? or did I think I could venture to come to a close engagement with him? to all which not a word on my side: I sigh'd, and could scarce breathe: She takes hold of my hand, and having roll'd up her own petticoats, forced it half-strivingly towards those parts, where now grown more knowing, I mist the main object of my wishes; and finding not even the shadow of what I wanted, where every thing was so flat! or so hollow! In the vexation I was in at it, I should have withdrawn my ​hand, but for fear of disobliging her. Abandoning it then entirely to her management, she made use of it as she thought proper, to procure herself rather the shadow than the substance of any pleasure. For my part, I now pin'd for more solid food, and promis'd tacitly to myself that I would not be put off much longer with this foolery from woman to woman, if Mrs. Brown did not soon provide me with the essential specific: in short I had all the air of not being able to wait the arrival of my lord B ———, tho' he was now expected in a very few days: nor did I wait for him, for love itself took charge of the disposal of me, in spite of interest, or gross lust.

File : Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749, vol. 1).pdf

The book eventually made its way to the United States. In 1821, a Massachusetts court outlawed Fanny Hill. The publisher, Peter Holmes, was convicted for printing a "lewd and obscene" novel. Holmes appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. He claimed that the judge, relying only on the prosecution's description, had not even seen the book. The state Supreme Court was not swayed. The Chief Justice wrote that Holmes was "a scandalous and evil disposed person" who had contrived to "debauch and corrupt" the citizens of Massachusetts and "to raise and create in their minds inordinate and lustful desires". John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure has been described as the first erotic novel in English and is perhaps the greatest example of the genre. From the outset it was mired in disrepute. Cleland penned the novel to liberate himself from debtors’ prison, and the book’s manifestly lewd content led to its legal suppression within a year of publication. Though versions of the novel, nearly always abridged in some form, continued to find a way into print, the Memoirs remained an underground text until the 1960s. Only as that decade ushered in a culture less socially deferential and more sexually permissive was the moment opportune for the obscenity ban to be successfully challenged. Cleland’s novel is a triumph of literary style, resting on his invention of an entirely new, vividly metaphoric, terminology for describing sexual pleasure. Fanny Hill (also known as Sex, Lies and Renaissance) is a 1983 British sex comedy film directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Lisa Foster, Oliver Reed, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Shelley Winters. It is adapted from the 1748 novel of the same name by John Cleland. [1] Plot [ edit ] The opportunity however did not offer till next morning, for Phœbe did not come to bed till long after I was gone to sleep: as soon then, as we were both awake, it was but in course to bring our ly-a-bed chat to land on the subject of my uneasiness: to which a recital of the love scene, I had thus, by a chance been spectatress of, served for a preface. Conversation, example, all, in short, contributed, in that house, to corrupt my native purity, which had taken no root in education, whilst now the inflammable principle of pleasure, so easily fired at my age, made strange work within me, and all the modesty I was brought up in the habit, (not the instruction) of, began to melt away, like dew before the sun's heat; not to mention that I made a vice of necessity, from the constant fears I had of being turn'd out to starve.I then just hinted to him not to mention in the house his having seen such a person as me, for reasons I would explain to him more at leisure: and then, for fear of miscarrying by being seen together, I tore myself from him with a bleeding heart, and stole up softly to my room, where I found Phœbe still fast asleep, and hurrying off my few cloaths, lay down by her, with a mixture of joy and anxiety, that may be easier conceived than express'd. Mr. H ———, content however with having the day break upon his triumphs, resign'd me up to the refreshment of a rest we both wanted, and we soon dropt into a profound sleep. After a sufficient length of dialogue, my bed-fellow left me to my rest, and I fell asleep, through pure weariness, from the violent emotions I had been led into, when nature (which had been too warmly stir'd and fermented to subside without ​allaying by some means or other) relieved me by one of those luscious dreams, the transports of which are scarce inferior to those of waking, real action. Whilst they were in the heat of the action, guided by nature only, I stole my hand up my petty-coat, and with fingers all on fire, seized, and yet more inflamed that center of all my senses: my heart palpitated, as if it would force its way through my bosom; I breath'd with pain: I twisted my thighs, squeezed, and compress'd the lips of that ​virgin-slit, and following mechanically the example of Phœbe 's manual operation on it, as far as I could find admission, brought on at last the critical extasy, the melting flow, into which nature, spent with excess of pleasure, dissolves and dies away. After breakfast, Charles, the dear familiar name I must take the liberty henceforward to distinguish my Adonis by, with a smile full of meaning, took me gently by the hand, and said, "Come, my dear, I will show you a room that commands a fine prospect over some gardens:" and without waiting for an answer, in which he relieved me extremely, he led me up into a chamber, airy and lightsome, where all seeing of prospects was out of the question, except that of a bed, which had all the air of having recommended the room to him.

Memoirs Of A Woman of Pleasure (Wordsworth Fanny Hill: Memoirs Of A Woman of Pleasure (Wordsworth

The young fellow had just dismounted, when the old lady immediately sprung up, with all the vigour of youth, derived no doubt from her late refreshment; and making him sit down, began in her turn to kiss him, to pat and pinch his cheeks, and play with his hair, all which he receiv'd with an air of indifference, and coolness, that showed him to me much altered from what he was when he first went on to the breach.I was now entering on my fifteenth year, when the worst of ills befell me in the loss of my tender fond parents, who were both carried off by the small-pox, within a few days of each other; my father dying first, and thereby hastening the death of my mother, so that l was now left an unhappy friendless Orphan: (for my father's coming to settle there, was accidental, he being originally a Kentish-man.) That cruel distemper which had proved so fatal to them, had indeed seized me, but with such mild and favourable symptoms, that I was presently out of danger, and, what I then did not know the value of, was entirely unmark'd. I skip over here, an account of the natural grief and affliction, which I felt on this melancholy occasion. A little time, and the giddiness of that age, dissipated too soon my reflections on that irreparable loss; but nothing contributed more to reconcile me to it, than the notions that were immediately put into my head, of going to London, and ​looking out for a service, in which I was promised all assistance and advice, from one Esther Davis, a young woman that had been down to see her friends, and who, after the stay of a few days, was to return to her place. The novel's developed characters include Charles, Mrs Jones (Fanny's landlady), Mrs Cole, Will, Mr H— and Mr Norbert. The prose includes long sentences with many subordinate clauses. Its morality is conventional for the time, in that it denounces sodomy, frowns upon vice and approves of only heterosexual unions based upon mutual love. [22] Analysis [ edit ]

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment