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

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After saluting her, he led her to a couch that fronted us, where they both sat down, and the young Genoese help'd her to a glass of wine, with some Naples bisket on a salver. Presently my mistress touch'd the bell, and in came a strapping maid-servant, ​who had let us in: Here, Martha, said Mrs. Brown, I have just hir'd this young woman to look after my linnen; so step up, and shew her her chamber; and I charge you to use her with as much respect as you would myself, for I have taken a prodigious liking to her, and I do not know what I shall do for her. No sooner then was this precious substitute of my mystress's laid down, but she, who was never out of her way when any occasion of lewdness presented itself, turned to me, embraced, and kiss'd me with great eagerness. This was new, this was odd; but imputing it to nothing but ​pure kindness, which, for ought I knew, it might be the London way to express in that manner, I was determin'd not to be behind-hand with her, and returned her the kiss and embrace, with all the fervour that perfect innocence knew.

Fanny Hill (1983 film) - Wikipedia Fanny Hill (1983 film) - Wikipedia

This, and enough, premised, I go souse into my personal history. My maiden name was Francis Hill. I was born at a small village near Liverpool in Lancashire, of parents extremely poor, and I piously believe, extremely honest. Time Out wrote, "a relatively large budget and some respectable names in the cast list, but this is still limp softcore flummery sold on the half-remembered notoriety of its purported 18th century source...Lawyer Reed and madam Winters, meanwhile, seem as though they have their teeth gritted in the hope that it will all be over soon." [4] The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill (US, 1966), starring Stacy Walker, Ginger Hale; directed by Peter Perry (Arthur Stootsbury). 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. Poor country lass Fanny Hill sets off for London where she embarks on a series of sexual encounters in pursuit of wealth and happiness, "with many erotic asides." [2] Cast [ edit ]Truth! stark naked truth, is the word, and I will not so much as take the pains to bestow the strip of a gauze wrapper on it, but paint situations such as they actually rose to me in nature, careless of violating those laws of decency, ​that were never made for such unreserved intimacies as ours; and you have too much sense, too much knowledge of the originals themselves, to snuff prudishly, and out of character, at the pictures of them. The greatest men, those of the first and most leading taste, will not scruple adorning their private closets with nudities, though, in compliance with vulgar prejudices they may not think them decent decorations of the stair-case or saloon. The novel was published in two instalments, on 21 November 1748 and in February 1749, by Fenton Griffiths and his brother Ralph under the name "G. Fenton". [7] There has been speculation that the novel was at least partly written by 1740, when Cleland was stationed in Bombay as an employee of the East India Company. [8] Had I consider'd this escapade of Mr. H⸻ in no more than that light, and contented myself with turning away the wench, I had thought and acted right; but, flush'd as I was with imaginary wrongs, I should have held Mr. H⸻ to have been cheaply off, if I had not push'd my revenge farther, and repaid him, as exactly as I could for the soul of me, in the same coin. But guess at my mortification and surprize when we came to the inn, and our things were landed and deliver'd to us, when my fellow traveller and protectress, Esther Davis, who had used me with the utmost tenderness during the journey, and prepared me by no preceding signs for the stunning blow I was to receive; when, I say, my only dependence, and friend, in this strange place, all of a sudden assumed a strange ​and cool air towards me, as if she dreaded my becoming a burden to her. My father, who had received a maim on his limbs that disabled him from following the more laborious branches of country-drudgery, got, by making of nets, a scanty subsistance, which was not much enlarg'd by my mother's keeping a little day-school for the girls in her neighbourhood. They had had several children, ​but none lived to any age, except myself, who had received from nature a constitution perfectly healthy.

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure - John Cleland - Google Books

In the mean time, the extension of my limbs, languid stretchings, sighs, short heavings, all conspired to assure that ​experienced wanton that I was more pleased than offended at her proceedings, which she seasoned with repeated kisses and exclamations, such as "Oh! what a charming creature thou art! —— what a happy man will he be that first makes a woman of you! ———— Oh! that I were a man for your sake ————!" with the like broken expressions, interrupted by kisses as fierce and falacious as ever I received from the other sex. One of the waiters coming in, added yet more to my uncertainty, by asking me, in a short way, if I called for anything? to which I replied, innocently: No.; but I wished him to tell me where I might get a lodging for that night: he said he would go and speak to his mistress, who accordingly came, and told me drily, without entering in the least into the distress she saw me in, that I might have a bed for a shilling: and that, as she supposed I had some friends in town (here I fetched a deep sigh in vain!) I might provide for myself in the morning. When I thought I had sufficiently ripen'd him for the laudable point I had in view; one day that I expected him at a particular hour, I took care to have the coast clear for the reception I design'd him: and, as I had laid it, he came to the dining-room door, tapped at it, and on my bidding him come in, he did so, and shut the door after him: I desir'd him then to bolt it on the inside, pretending it would not otherwise keep shut.

By John Cleland

Oh! how still and hush did I keep at my stand, lest any noise should baulk my curiosity, or bring Madam into the closet! After which my senses recover'd coolness enough to observe the rest of the transaction between this happy pair.

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure - John Cleland - Google Books Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure - John Cleland - Google Books

Such too, and so cruel was my fate, that I dreaded the sight of Mrs. Brown, as if I had been the criminal, and she the person injur'd: a mistake which you will not think so strange, on distinguishing that neither virtue, nor principles, had the least share in the defence I had made; but only the particular aversion I had conceiv'd against this first brutal and frightful invader of my tender innocence. We were now alone; and on that idea a sudden fit of trembling seized me; —— I was so afraid, without a precise notion of why, and what I had to fear, that I sat on the settee, by the fire-side, motionless, and petrified, without life or spirit, not knowing how to look, or how to stir. 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. Until Fanny Hill, previous heroines had conducted their amorous liaisons “off-stage.” Any erotic misadventures were described euphemistically. As women who had gone astray, they always repented, which made even their most outrageous dalliances somehow suitable for a moralistic readership. The protagonist of Fanny Hill, however, never repented a single moment of her sexual exploits … quite the contrary! And with Fanny, the devil is in the details, realistically described. (Summary by Denny Mike) We had certainly been but a few instants away from it, and yet on our return we saw every thing in good ​forwardness for recommencing the tender hostilities.Nor was this worthy act of justice long delaid: I had it too much at heart, ​ Mr. H⸻ had, about a fortnight before, taken into his service a tenant's son, just come out of the country, a very handsome young lad scarce turn'd of nineteen, fresh as a rose, well shap'd and clever-limb'd: in short, a very good excuse for any woman's liking, even tho' revenge had been out of the question; any woman, I say, who was disprejudic'd, and had wit and spirit enough to prefer a point of pleasure to a point of pride. The brute had, it seems, as I afterwards understood, brought on, by his eagerness, and struggle, the ultimate period of his hot fit of lust, which his power was too short liv'd to carry him through the full execution of; of which my thighs and linnen received the effusion. We soon got to the house appointed for me, which was that of a plain tradesman, who, on the score of interest, was entirely at Mr. H⸻'s devotion, and who let him the first floor very genteelly furnish'd, for two guineas a week, of which I was instated mistress, with a maid to attend me.

Memoirs of a woman of pleasure : Cleland, John, 1709-1789

O'Hara said Towers wrote a script but O'Hara did not use it. "I had a pretty good cast though," said O'Hara. [3] Critical reception [ edit ] 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.

John Cleland

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 ] McCorison, Marcus A. (1 June 2010). "Printers and the Law: The Trials of Publishing Obscene Libel in Early America". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 104 (2): 181–217. doi: 10.1086/680925. ISSN 0006-128X. S2CID 152734843. Browne, Ray Broadus; Browne, Pat (2001). The Guide to United States Popular Culture. Popular Press. ISBN 978-0-87972-821-2. As if this had been the signal agreed on for pulling off all their cloaths, a scheme which the heat of the season perfectly favoured, Polly began to draw her pins, and as she had no stays to unlace, she was in a trice, with her gallant's officious assistance, undress'd to all but her shift. Fanny Hill (West Germany/UK, 1983), starring Lisa Foster, Oliver Reed, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Shelley Winters; directed by Gerry O'Hara [36]