Status Updates From Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a ...

Finally, we’ve reached the return of Charles. This last third of the book has been tiresome—which is a shame, because the first two thirds were fairly (surprisingly?) enjoyable.

‘It is to be noted that, tho all modesty & reserve were banished the transaction of these pleasures, good manners & politeness were inviolably observed: here was no gross ribaldry, no offensive or rude behavior, or ungenerous reproaches to the girls for their compliance with the humors & desires of the men.’ …So a 1740s dude author knows slut shaming is wrong, yet modern lady authors still do it. Hmmmm. 🤔

“Emotions of fear & surprise were instantly subdued by those of the pleasure I bespoke in great presence of mind from the turn this adventure might take: he seemed no other than a pitying angel, dropped out of the clouds; for he was young & perfectly handsome, which was more than even I had asked for, MAN, in general, being all that my utmost desires had pointed at.” …Fanny’s new friend Louisa is horny. 😂

‘His hair neatly trimmed, clean linen &, above all, a hale, ruddy, wholesome country look, made him out as pretty a piece of woman’s meat as you should see, & I should have thought anyone much out of taste that could not have made a hearty meal of such a morsel as nature seemed to have designed for the highest diet of pleasure.’ ….Lol. Nowadays we just say “I’d hit that.” 😂

‘Hitherto, indeed, I had only taken notice of the comeliness of the youth, but without the least design. My pride alone would have guarded ms from a thought that way, had not Mr H—‘s condescension w/ my maid, where there was not half the temptation in point of person, set me a dangerous example; but now I began to look on this stripling as every way a delicious instrument of my designed retaliation.’

‘I considered myself as so much in his power that I endured his kisses & embraces without affecting struggles or anger; not that they as yet gave me any pleasure, or prevailed over the aversion of my soul to give myself up to any sensation of the sort; what I suffered, I suffered out of a kind of gratitude, & as matter of course after what had passed.’ …Interesting depiction of rape-by-passivity vs consent.

‘Think of a face without fault, glowing with all the opening bloom & vernal freshness of an age in which beauty is of either sex, & which the first down over his upper-lip scarce began to distinguish.’ ….I’m picturing an effeminate 20-yr-old with chin pubes. 🤢 But hey, this is the 1740s; having clean hair & all one’s teeth was practically an aphrodisiac, so I can’t judge teenage Fanny’s awe. 🤭