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MEMOIRS COXCOMB
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition++++British LibraryT057321Anonymous. By John Cleland.London : printed for R. Griffiths, 1751. [2],386p. ; 12°
- GenresFictionLiterature
386 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1751
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 12, 2022
I have no other way but to compare this with Fanny Hill. I picked this book because it's a Cleland and also because the back cover suggested another memoir, as erotically adventurous as Fanny Hill. However, the general aura is far from erotic. It's serious-sounding and at times pompous. The author uses grandiloquent and highly complex sentences without the salaciousness that would keep a reader company. I mean, Cleland, I'm here for the 18th century erotica, why so serious?
In addition to the above-mentioned general commentary, I felt as if Cleland wrote rounder women characters than he did men. Writing words for a woman, Cleland created unbiased and lesser-judgmental women who actually enjoy physical pleasure and are honest about their profession. Writing a male character, though, his protagonist is a tasteless young and arrogant wanderer who forces himself upon women then either abandons them or pretends that he is better than everyone else.
To be fair, I need to mention that one of the reasons this sequel seemed much watered-down might be because it was written after his trial for Fanny Hill. I need to mention that Cleland lacks nothing with regards to writing with a more mature style here, but in the end it did not turn out to be another Fanny Hill as the cover suggests!
In addition to the above-mentioned general commentary, I felt as if Cleland wrote rounder women characters than he did men. Writing words for a woman, Cleland created unbiased and lesser-judgmental women who actually enjoy physical pleasure and are honest about their profession. Writing a male character, though, his protagonist is a tasteless young and arrogant wanderer who forces himself upon women then either abandons them or pretends that he is better than everyone else.
To be fair, I need to mention that one of the reasons this sequel seemed much watered-down might be because it was written after his trial for Fanny Hill. I need to mention that Cleland lacks nothing with regards to writing with a more mature style here, but in the end it did not turn out to be another Fanny Hill as the cover suggests!
June 10, 2007
Once again, Broadview has produced a well-annotated edition of an important but difficult to find text that should appeal to scholars and students, as well as those with a taste for social satire and ambiguous morality. This second novel by Cleland is not as graphic as his first, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749): rather than landing its author in prison on obscenity charges, this novel received some commercial and critical success. The similar titles of Cleland’s first two books invite comparison, and may mislead readers into assuming it’s a rewriting of Fanny’s story from an aristocratic male perspective. Approaching the text from this point of view will lead to disappointment: it does not hold copious references to penises and there are no orgies
or same-sex relations.
What Coxcomb does offer is a study in eighteenth-century English masculinity as it is invented, challenged and repeatedly undone throughout the adventures of nineteen-year old Sir William Delamore. It is a comedy of manners that takes the conventions of romances and amatory fiction only to make them the vessel carrying a larger social critique. Editor Gladfelder does an excellent job of illustrating through his introduction, annotations and appendices that the reader is meant to see the hollowness the narrator’s attempts at asserting masculine dominance. As he points out, Delamore’s terror of being dominated by women is projected onto other emasculated men: "There is, in fact, a near total absence of strong figures of male authority, in either the public or private spheres" (31).
In my opinion, this lack of real male authority gives an aura of sexual failure to the anti-climatic ending. Lydia has been found, her story revealed, Merville (Delamore’s sketchly drawn “mentor”) quickly steps aside as our hero’s romantic rival (he often does this, making one wonder if, despite Delamore’s insistance on Merville’s success with women, their relationship should be read as more homoerotic than homosocial). Supposedly, like Tom Jones (watch out for a Mrs. Rivers in a role I found reminiscent of Mrs. Waters), Delamore’s sexual adventures have prepared him to return to his destined, chaste first love. But we leave the text with him awaiting a response from his beloved or her family. What should have ended in a climatic satisfaction of the hero’s desires ends abruptly as he waits for female position. The last sentence mentions that his aunt and guardian, Lady Bellinger, whom he spent his young life tyrannizing, is quite happy that he has given up his plans to go abroad, which she opposed earlier in the novel.
Fanny’s adventures as a prostitute provided an excellent education for her to become a wife, but it is unclear for what role Delamore’s life as a coxcomb has prepared him. It is even doubtful that he truly is a coxcomb or merely a fop.
Despite the power Delamore sees and fears in his “conquests,” the plight of women due to their lack of political, social and economic power is shown through the theme of prostitution: the seduced housemaid, Diana, is later found in a brothel (the humor of her chaste name and early similarities to Richardson’s Pamela do not entirely undermine her demise), Agnes is an unwitting commodity as she is the bait to help fulfill her guardian’s sexual desires, and even the pure Lydia, Delamore’s supposedly “true” love, is revealed at the end to have been in hiding because her father wanted to sell her in marriage to an inappropriately old Lord in exchange for social advancement.
Items also of interest: the Appendices contain selections from Cleland’s 1753 translation of J.F. Dreux du Radier’s Dictionnaire d’Amour (1741), offering the best definition of a fop I have come across and an intriguing view of submission.
or same-sex relations.
What Coxcomb does offer is a study in eighteenth-century English masculinity as it is invented, challenged and repeatedly undone throughout the adventures of nineteen-year old Sir William Delamore. It is a comedy of manners that takes the conventions of romances and amatory fiction only to make them the vessel carrying a larger social critique. Editor Gladfelder does an excellent job of illustrating through his introduction, annotations and appendices that the reader is meant to see the hollowness the narrator’s attempts at asserting masculine dominance. As he points out, Delamore’s terror of being dominated by women is projected onto other emasculated men: "There is, in fact, a near total absence of strong figures of male authority, in either the public or private spheres" (31).
In my opinion, this lack of real male authority gives an aura of sexual failure to the anti-climatic ending. Lydia has been found, her story revealed, Merville (Delamore’s sketchly drawn “mentor”) quickly steps aside as our hero’s romantic rival (he often does this, making one wonder if, despite Delamore’s insistance on Merville’s success with women, their relationship should be read as more homoerotic than homosocial). Supposedly, like Tom Jones (watch out for a Mrs. Rivers in a role I found reminiscent of Mrs. Waters), Delamore’s sexual adventures have prepared him to return to his destined, chaste first love. But we leave the text with him awaiting a response from his beloved or her family. What should have ended in a climatic satisfaction of the hero’s desires ends abruptly as he waits for female position. The last sentence mentions that his aunt and guardian, Lady Bellinger, whom he spent his young life tyrannizing, is quite happy that he has given up his plans to go abroad, which she opposed earlier in the novel.
Fanny’s adventures as a prostitute provided an excellent education for her to become a wife, but it is unclear for what role Delamore’s life as a coxcomb has prepared him. It is even doubtful that he truly is a coxcomb or merely a fop.
Despite the power Delamore sees and fears in his “conquests,” the plight of women due to their lack of political, social and economic power is shown through the theme of prostitution: the seduced housemaid, Diana, is later found in a brothel (the humor of her chaste name and early similarities to Richardson’s Pamela do not entirely undermine her demise), Agnes is an unwitting commodity as she is the bait to help fulfill her guardian’s sexual desires, and even the pure Lydia, Delamore’s supposedly “true” love, is revealed at the end to have been in hiding because her father wanted to sell her in marriage to an inappropriately old Lord in exchange for social advancement.
Items also of interest: the Appendices contain selections from Cleland’s 1753 translation of J.F. Dreux du Radier’s Dictionnaire d’Amour (1741), offering the best definition of a fop I have come across and an intriguing view of submission.
October 23, 2025
Джон Клеланд і його перша книга Fanny Hill — це справжній феномен в історії е🍆тичної літератури. Одна з найскандальніших книг XVIII століття.
Коли вона з’явилася, Лондон охопив шок:
читають усі — засуджують усі — а продажі ростуть.
Книгу неодноразово забороняли, автора навіть ув’язнювали, але історія “розпусної міс Фанні Гілл” стала класикою — її читали потайки, ховали під подушкою.
Але ми поговоримо про його другий такий роман: "Memoirs of a Coxcomb" — або «Мемуари ловеласа» (*хз як перекласти🫣) — цього разу він дав слово чоловіку, який відверто розповідає про свої пригоди, бажання і зваблення.
Це наче психологічний портрет — самозакоханого, дотепного, іноді смішного, іноді огидного чоловіка.
Клеланд знову грає на межі — між еpoтикою, сатирою і сповіддю.
Він показує, як спокуса і марнославство стають рушійною силою чоловічого світу, де любов — лише інструмент, а тілесність — валюта.
Перша третина книги навіть досить скромна🤭 Цікаво як британський аристократ пізнавав перші любовні втіхи і намагався знайти різницю між тілесним і душевним тяжінням.. і врешті решт... з головою пірнув у любощі..
Але звичних описів 🌶 сцен ви там не побачите😅 ох ці британці...
За одні розмови про.. навіть без деталей, роман одразу потрапив під заборону. За деякі висловлювання сьогодні його б теж закенселили🤭
Це не просто історія про розпусту — це історія про его, владу і маску чарівності, за якою ховається порожнеча.
Книга специфічна і зовсім інакша ніж я думала, тут навіть є трохи благородства і це зовсім не та еротика, як ми її розуміємо сьогодні🤭
Скандальні романи Клеланда вплинули на цілу хвилю літератури — від французьких “галантних історій” до сучасних романів, де тема тілесності подається не як гріх, а як частина людського досвіду, з домішками філософських роздумів.
Він жив в один період із де Садом..
Його книги довгий час були заборонені в Америці.
Тінто Брасс, наприклад, створював свої фільми в тій самій традиції: чуттєвість як дзеркало суспільства.
Клеланд не просто писав про насолоду — він досліджував, чому люди ховають її за лицемірством моралі.
І, здається, це питання досі залишається актуальним.
Коли вона з’явилася, Лондон охопив шок:
читають усі — засуджують усі — а продажі ростуть.
Книгу неодноразово забороняли, автора навіть ув’язнювали, але історія “розпусної міс Фанні Гілл” стала класикою — її читали потайки, ховали під подушкою.
Але ми поговоримо про його другий такий роман: "Memoirs of a Coxcomb" — або «Мемуари ловеласа» (*хз як перекласти🫣) — цього разу він дав слово чоловіку, який відверто розповідає про свої пригоди, бажання і зваблення.
Це наче психологічний портрет — самозакоханого, дотепного, іноді смішного, іноді огидного чоловіка.
Клеланд знову грає на межі — між еpoтикою, сатирою і сповіддю.
Він показує, як спокуса і марнославство стають рушійною силою чоловічого світу, де любов — лише інструмент, а тілесність — валюта.
Перша третина книги навіть досить скромна🤭 Цікаво як британський аристократ пізнавав перші любовні втіхи і намагався знайти різницю між тілесним і душевним тяжінням.. і врешті решт... з головою пірнув у любощі..
Але звичних описів 🌶 сцен ви там не побачите😅 ох ці британці...
За одні розмови про.. навіть без деталей, роман одразу потрапив під заборону. За деякі висловлювання сьогодні його б теж закенселили🤭
Це не просто історія про розпусту — це історія про его, владу і маску чарівності, за якою ховається порожнеча.
Книга специфічна і зовсім інакша ніж я думала, тут навіть є трохи благородства і це зовсім не та еротика, як ми її розуміємо сьогодні🤭
Скандальні романи Клеланда вплинули на цілу хвилю літератури — від французьких “галантних історій” до сучасних романів, де тема тілесності подається не як гріх, а як частина людського досвіду, з домішками філософських роздумів.
Він жив в один період із де Садом..
Його книги довгий час були заборонені в Америці.
Тінто Брасс, наприклад, створював свої фільми в тій самій традиції: чуттєвість як дзеркало суспільства.
Клеланд не просто писав про насолоду — він досліджував, чому люди ховають її за лицемірством моралі.
І, здається, це питання досі залишається актуальним.
January 26, 2019
The cover of the Lancer Books paperback edition that I read has "Fanny Hill" blazoned across the top of the front cover, in order to spur sales, I guess. In any case anyone who reads it expecting to read another porn novel like the author's Fanny Hill will be disappointed. It's a novel about a young guy in mid-18th century England who is pursuing women but there are no seductions, as I recall, let alone sex scenes. Better read as a literary psychological study.
June 30, 2019
I can see why this wasn't nearly as popular as Fanny Hill in the 1750s. It's not as explicit, and the plot is thin. However, I do like how the ending is set up, even if said ending is abrupt and unsatisfactory. Generally, it's an ok 18th century novel, but it's nothing compared to its predecessor.
April 10, 2021
It says something when the introduction is the blurb for the book and nothing said about the volume it prefixes.
By golly, this is a dull read!
No, let me rephrase this, it is a very very dull read that I did not finish, a real rarity for me. I confess I bought this for my Mahlon Blaine collection (even Blaine's normally exuberant artwork is quite tame in this volume) and was rather hoping for a sequel to Clelands 'Fanny Hill' which I must have read about forty years ago. Coxcomb is a chaste affair and one spends the first fifty pages reading of young Sir William Delamore's unconsummated passion for a mysterious young woman living incognito near his aunts' house. Her sudden departure is supposed to precipitate his series of conquests.
Other reviewers have pointed out that it is a social satire of some sort (no doubt the intro to the edition illustrated in the blurb -not in my book- explains why this is) but I detected none of this. Perhaps I either didn't understand it when it was presented to me or was dozing as I read, because the style is written in such a convoluted manner:
"Possessed of all the powers of perfect beauty, without the insolence of its consciousness, or the impertinences it serves so often as a privilege to, she gave all she said or did the sweetest of graces, that of pure nature, unadulterated with affectation, that bane of barely not the whole sex, that so many of ours are either dupes of, or coxcombs enough to catch the contagion of from them."
Actually, I just didn't really care.
Avoid!
By golly, this is a dull read!
No, let me rephrase this, it is a very very dull read that I did not finish, a real rarity for me. I confess I bought this for my Mahlon Blaine collection (even Blaine's normally exuberant artwork is quite tame in this volume) and was rather hoping for a sequel to Clelands 'Fanny Hill' which I must have read about forty years ago. Coxcomb is a chaste affair and one spends the first fifty pages reading of young Sir William Delamore's unconsummated passion for a mysterious young woman living incognito near his aunts' house. Her sudden departure is supposed to precipitate his series of conquests.
Other reviewers have pointed out that it is a social satire of some sort (no doubt the intro to the edition illustrated in the blurb -not in my book- explains why this is) but I detected none of this. Perhaps I either didn't understand it when it was presented to me or was dozing as I read, because the style is written in such a convoluted manner:
"Possessed of all the powers of perfect beauty, without the insolence of its consciousness, or the impertinences it serves so often as a privilege to, she gave all she said or did the sweetest of graces, that of pure nature, unadulterated with affectation, that bane of barely not the whole sex, that so many of ours are either dupes of, or coxcombs enough to catch the contagion of from them."
Actually, I just didn't really care.
Avoid!
December 8, 2018
The women were all, ay that they were, nothing but living magazines of levity, art and folly. The only wise were those, who by treating with them, merely on the foot of their subserviency to their own pleasure, without even suffering it to be in their power to give them a moment’s pain, preserved their great chacrater of superiority. The complaints of being made fools of by them ought to begin at home.”
-John Cleland on Memois of a Coxcomb part III.
Full review is at https://literatureisliving.wordpress....
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'#literature #booklover #bibliophile #ilovereading #igreads #igbook #instaread #instabooks #bookish #shelf #shelves #bookaholic #letsread #bookstagram #bookstagramindonesia #literarian #literatureteacher #literatureisliving #bookreview #booknerd #bookofinstagram #descalibrary #descaslibrary #erotic #eroticliterature #johncleland #memoirsofacoxcomb
-John Cleland on Memois of a Coxcomb part III.
Full review is at https://literatureisliving.wordpress....
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.
.
.
'#literature #booklover #bibliophile #ilovereading #igreads #igbook #instaread #instabooks #bookish #shelf #shelves #bookaholic #letsread #bookstagram #bookstagramindonesia #literarian #literatureteacher #literatureisliving #bookreview #booknerd #bookofinstagram #descalibrary #descaslibrary #erotic #eroticliterature #johncleland #memoirsofacoxcomb
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July 7, 2015too boring didn't finish.
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