Fanny: Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones

by Erica Jong

Discovered on the doorstep of a country estate in Wiltshire, England, the infant Fanny is raised to womanhood by her adoptive parents, Lord and Lady Bellars. Fanny wants to become the epic poet of the age, but her plans are dashed when she is ravished by her libertine stepfather. Fleeing to London, Fanny falls in with idealistic witches and highwaymen who teach her of worlds she never knew existed. After toiling in a London brothel that caters to literati, Fanny embarks on a series of adventures that teach her what she must know to live and prosper as a woman. Soon to be a major Broadway musical. Reading group guide included.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Erotica, Romance, Historical, Novels, Ebooks

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Erica Jong—novelist, poet, and essayist—has consistently used her craft to help provide women with a powerful and rational voice in forging a feminist consciousness. She has published 21 books, including eight novels, six volumes of poetry, six books of non-fiction and numerous articles in magazines and newspapers such as the New York Times, the Sunday Times of London, Elle, Vogue, and the New York Times Book Review.

In her groundbreaking first novel, Fear of Flying (which has sold twenty-six million copies in more than forty languages), she introduced Isadora Wing, who also plays a central part in three subsequent novels—How to Save Your Own Life, Parachutes and Kisses, and Any Woman's Blues. In her three historical novels—Fanny, Shylock's Daughter, and Sappho's Leap—she demonstrates her mastery of eighteenth-century British literature, the verses of Shakespeare, and ancient Greek lyric, respectively. A memoir of her life as a writer, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life, came out in March 2006. It was a national bestseller in the US and many other countries. Erica’s latest book, Sugar in My Bowl, is an anthology of women writing about sex, has been recently released in paperback.

Erica Jong was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. She has also received Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize, also won by W.S. Merwin and Sylvia Plath. In France, she received the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence and in Italy, she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature. The City University of New York awarded Ms. Jong an honorary PhD at the College of Staten Island.

Her works have appeared all over the world and are as popular in Eastern Europe, Japan, China, and other Asian countries as they have been in the United States and Western Europe. She has lectured, taught and read her work all over the world.

A graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University's Graduate Faculties where she received her M.A. in 18th Century English Literature, Erica Jong also attended Columbia's graduate writing program where she studied poetry with Stanley Kunitz and Mark Strand. In 2007, continuing her long-standing relationship with the university, a large collection of Erica’s archival material was acquired by Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library, where it will be available to graduate and undergraduate students. Ms. Jong plans to teach master classes at Columbia and also advise the Rare Book Library on the acquisition of other women writers’ archives.

Calling herself “a defrocked academic,” Ms. Jong has partly returned to her roots as a scholar. She has taught at Ben Gurion University in Israel, Bennington College in the US, Breadloaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont and many other distinguished writing programs and universities. She loves to teach and lecture, though her skill in these areas has sometimes crowded her writing projects. “As long as I am communicating the gift of literature, I’m happy,” Jong says. A poet at heart, Ms. Jong believes that words can save the world.

Reviews

[Carol Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a sexy romp -- and a feminist manifesto -- but it's not great literature. Or a great love story!

I have mixed feelings about FANNY. On the one hand, I adore wild sex and adventurous pairings. And this book has plenty of both! On the other hand, I resent Erica Jong's constant flaunting of her educational pedigree, her Manhattan posturing, the subtle snobbery that consistently undermines her feminist preaching. And I can't help but feel that there are (literally) hundreds of hard-working romance writers who sit down EVERY DAY and crank out love stories (some even set in the 18th century) that are more moving, more emotional, more authentic, and even better researched than this one. But THOSE authors didn't go to Barnard College on Manhattan's elite Upper West Side -- a school so exclusive they actually employ a small army of uniformed security guards to keep the riffraff at bay!

So yes, I resented the book before I ever picked it up to read. And then, when the sex got hot, I found I didn't really mind. But at the end of the book, I noticed how empty it all seemed. Fanny's adventures are fun, but for all the sex there's really very little emotion to go around. There's no strong hero. There's no lasting commitment. There's also never, ever a time when Fanny seems even remotely concerned with the brutal poverty and starvation all around her -- liberating her own body seems to be her first (and only) priority. Even when she's trapped in a brothel, there's a surprising coldness in the way she catalogs the diseases that are slowly killing her female companions. Evidently it's okay to romp with working class women in bed -- but you don't want to get too close to them. While this sheds a lot of light on the modern feminist movement, it also makes for a very depressing and unemotional read.

To sum up, Fanny is no Huckleberry Finn. This is a picaresque novel, yes. Fanny travels like Huck, but unlike Huck she doesn't really learn or go through any changes. Her book-learned feminist convictions are set in stone from day one. They don't grow over time. They aren't the result of experience. She sleeps around much more than Huck, but she's ultimately a lot more selfish and immature.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning: if you loved this book when it first came out, don't revisit!

I gave this book 5 stars because that's how I felt about it - in 1980. LOVE, LOVE, LOVED IT!

Having just reread it - wincing the whole time - Erica Jong's feminist rant/18th century sex romp is a bit sad and silly in 2012. Fun but overwrought. Thirty years later, Fanny didn't age well - or maybe I did.

If you like sexy (OK, porn-ish) historical romance and are between the ages of 16 and 25, go for it. If not, think twice.

Sincerest and Abundant Apologies to my Book Club :{

[OLT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decades and decades ago, when I was an undergrad at university, we school dormitory girlfriends passed around a well-worn paperback copy of John Cleland's FANNY HILL: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, published in 1748-1749. Ah, yes, it was a more innocent time. We got our porn from the classics, not from films like Debbie Does Dallas.

When Erica Jong put out her feminist version of Fanny in 1980, I was busy raising kids and teaching school in Latin America and missed it entirely, only finding it recently on Amazon at a bargain price. So I had to get it, if only for old times' sake, and to see how Jong's Fanny improved (or not) upon the original Georgian one.

I'm sorry to say that, although impressed by Jong's writing style imitative of 1700s publications and also happy with the fact that our Fanny here is not such a pushover for the male sexual organ and takes much more control of her own life, I was bored. There's too much detail, especially when we get to all the sailing on pirate ships.

So I skipped bunches of this, probably missing some intelligent and erudite references to Georgian people, ideas and culture. But life's too short, IMO, to spend it having my mind numbed by so much verbiage. I do admit to enjoying meeting up with Alexander Pope, William Hogarth, and Cleland himself, making a visit to the Hellfire Club, seeing the contrast between the early comfortable aristocratic life Fanny led and her life after ending up on the seedier side of society, making the acquaintance of a group of feminist witches and a group of highwaymen, and more.

So Fanny meets up with some actual historical personages of the times and also many more fictional ones. There are interesting discussions of witches, slavery, democracy, equality, and even some fun etymology of terms such as Jolly Roger, buccaneers, etc. If I had been in a more patient frame of mind I would have read this more carefully, but, as it was, the payoff for spending more time on this did not seem greater to me than the payoff of getting on with my life.

Three stars for this because I did enjoy Jong's Fanny being less of a pushover and less of a patsy than Cleland's. Well, feminism was coming into its own (kinda) in the 1980s. One would expect a more woke Fanny. Besides, Cleland was a guy. What do they really know about women?

[Ashley Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was pretty astounding. Very rarely have I reacted to a book with as much gusto - and I'm not talking about tears and laughter here, I'm talking about flat out shock. In terms of fiction, I've never had a book startle me as much as this one did and I loved it all the more for it. Erica Jong wrote this in such a manner that I truly believed she was Fanny Hackabout-Jones. She said in the beginning that she would keep no modesty, and she kept true to her word. The events in this book had ways of simultaneously disgusting and arousing me but ultimatley making me truly care for, and hate, the same ones that Fanny did. Fanny wanted to teach Belinda, her daughter, all the things she had learned in the world. At the very least, I think she succeeded in teaching me.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in the 1990s Libraries still had warnings on books this still needs one.
This Perfume style book by Patrick Suskin but with all filth in the book in sex not mud. This for the bored minded or the lover of the 'true' history because at end of the day this what was real fucking about Fucking not the odd kiss.
VD & parts dropping off ,whores slapping asses well you get it.If want real period book that is true & C ry funny like early English poetry (I often wonder why my mother loved 9th,10th + prose ?) blue BLUE forget porn this all true & it was around long before Emmanuel, Last Tango in Paris, or Twitter

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

erica jong takes the traditional long-winded historical adventure novel and liberally sprinkles it with sex and feminism. an interesting and amusing read. but i prefer the traditional long-winded historical adventure novel, there's not as much preciousness involved.

[Surreysmum · Rating 3 out of 5]

[These notes were made in 1982:]. An interesting attempt to imitate the eighteenth-century style while imposing the anachronism of 20th-century sensibilities on an eighteenth-century setting. Fanny Hackabout-Jones is supposed to be the true original of Fanny Hill, and while she has, if anything, even wilder erotic adventures than her namesake, she is also possessed of a good strong feminist bent with which she becomes very much too didactic at times - in fact, even the generally didactic tone of a good many eighteenth-century novels doesn't quite let her get away with it. The novel has a great deal more scope than Cleland's - as indeed, one would hope. Besides the brothel, we also get a pirate ship, London secret societies, Newgate ... Ms. Jong has obviously done her homework, and has some academic credibility, although for one who does not have to struggle with 18th-century language, her occasional modernisms jar terribly - pace her explanation in the afterword. Fanny's erotic scope is considerably larger than her namesake's too - there is a greater acceptance of - almost a paean to - homosexuality in both sexes; group sex; and just about every kind of sex besides - even the suggestion of (though not the actual achievement of) bestiality. Does it finally work? It's an entertaining enough romp, so I suppose in that sense it works - but in some ways Erica Jong is too good at the 18th-century style, for I found myself reacting -incredibly enough - with 18th-century sensibilities to her 20th-century tirades, and the dislocation was just enough to take the edge off the pleasure of reading this most interesting experiment.

[Julie Rasmine Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Titel: Fanny. Forfatter: Erica Jong. Sider: 499. Forlag: Gyldendals Bogklub. Udgivelsesår: 1980. Anmeldereksemplar: Litfix.dk ★★★★★

“Forældreløs, hore, eventyrerske, holdt elskerinde, slavefarer, sekretær, heks, ja, tilmed benådet pirat! Ved Gudinden, min egen livshistorie var en bedre historie end alle opdigtede historier. Og ved Gudinden, det var på tide at fortælle det hele”.

Fanny er en altopslugende, omfattende, spændende, farefuld, lystig, liderlig, litterær, feministisk og ikke mindst sandfærdig historie om den virkelige Fanny Hackabout-Jones og hendes eventyrlige oplevelser.

Jeg har længe haft Erica Jongs roman Fanny stående på bogreolen, stirrende på mig, inderligt nærmest ønskede den, at jeg læste den. Og en dag åbnede jeg bogen, for bare lige at lure på, hvad den egentlig indeholdt. Den havde udelukkende fundet nåde for mit blik i min lokale genbrug, fordi jeg genkendte forfatternavnet og titlen som værende en historie, der skulle læses. Jeg kunne ikke erindre, hvor jeg havde læst om bogen, men jeg havde netop hørt en udsendelse på Skønlitteratur på P1, hvor Nanna Mogensen interviewer Erica Jong, der siger: “Nanna, so how did you get your name?” som noget af det første til den udsendte danske interviewer. Allerede der var min interesse vakt, og så måtte Fanny altså med mig hjem.

Der stod hun længe på bogreolen klemt inde mellem Régine Deforges Pigen med den blå cykel og Ib Michaels Vanillepigen, og nu kunne jeg ikke lade hende stå længere. Og hvilken læseoplevelse! Det er svært at forklare med få ord, hvad romanen egentlig handler om, da den rummer så mange aspekter af livet og er fortalt med en sådan ihærdighed og et plot, der konstant driver fremad, at den for mig var noget nært umulig at lægge fra sig, da jeg først var gået i gang.

Læseren møder Fanny/Frances/Fannikin, da hun er omkring de 35 år på hendes residens Merriman Park i England omkring 1700-tallet. Her har Fanny nedfældet sin eventyrlige livshistorie til sin datter Belinda, der romanen igennem tiltales direkte. Fannys fortælling er spækket med de vildeste miljøbeskrivelser, der i et troværdigt sprog skildrer naturens skønhed, som den tog sig ud i 1924’ernes London og omkringliggende egne. Erica Jong skriver godt og har virkelig stykket et spændende plot sammen, hvor alle karakterer synes lige fyldige. Hovedpersonen Fanny er kun 17 år, da hun starter sin livshistorie men allerede som ung pige er hun fyldt med vilje, mod og kløgt og opdager snart, at hun må forlade barndomshjemmet Lymeworth, hvis hun skal opnå sine inderste drømme og længsler om at blive forfatterinde. 17 år forinden er Fanny blevet efterladt af sin ukendte mor på Lymworths trappetrin, og Lord og Lady Bellars har opdraget hende som sin egen, på lige vilkår med de to ægte Bellars, Mary og Daniel. Ja, allerede her minder det lidt om Brontës Stormfulde højder. Men Fanny er så meget mere. Skæbnen vil, at adoptivfaderens kødelige lyster tvinger Fanny til at forlade sit ellers elskede barndomshjem, og det bliver starten på en uforglemmelig rejse.

Fanny er en grænseoverskridende roman, og sexscenerne pinligt udpenslet, men romanen er så meget mere end de kødelige lyster, hvorfor jeg virkelig synes, at den fortjener at blive læst. Plotmæssigt minder mig den om mange af Karen Blixens bedste fortællinger, i miljøbeskrivelser og følelsesudladninger ligger den sig op af Diana Gabaldons Outlander-serie, og i sin kritik af kvinders position og undertrykkelse, har den referencer til Amalie Skrams Constance Ring – omend Fanny er langt mere fræk og frivol. Romanen er et feministisk manifest. Det er jo kvinderne, der føder alle de vigtige mænd, som Fanny selv erfarer midtvejs i sit livs rejse. Romanen anbefales derfor til ALLE kvinder og ligeså ALLE mænd. De varmeste anbefalinger herfra.

Et lille udpluk af de sjoveste og mest kække passager i bogen:

Kom, stå mig bi, poet, lad mund og fingre gå! Pikken bliver træt, men tungen kan altid stå!”

“Avlelemmet er en specialist; men tungen er en tusindkunstner!”

P.S på side 122 fylder en alfabetisk opremsning af ord, der kan beskrive det kvindelig kønsorgan, der efterlod mig både forpustet og fornøjet.

[Laurie Ab · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned from this book that knowing about other time periods, or knowing about anything really, helps make a better reading experience. The knowledge and writing experience Erica Jong provides in this novel is unlike anything I have ever read before, because, not only is it open like a wound, one really feels a connection to the character because she is so human.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I could not believe any woman of the time would have that boldness and freedom, I absolutely loved this more than bawdy adventure and romance. It has been years since I read this book, and the fond memories have inspired the desire to reread this novel. It has everything: romance, adventure, erotica, violence, humor and pathos.

[Annora Nin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up at a thrift store, as I do so many of my books, and fell in love with it. I guess first reading Eric Jong at the age of 50 makes me a late bloomer, had no idea what a remarkable writer she was. I fell in love this story of pirates and witches and reluctant whores, Fanny's fierceness in her own womanhood and love on both land and high seas.

[Michaela Mohr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go girl! Own thyself! Reading this book is one of my favorite things to do when I feel like the world sucks!

[Lisa Bauer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book so badly. I recently read Fear of Flying for the first time, and I absolutely loved how it represented the main character’s psyche in the midst of second wave feminism; when I learned that Jong had written Fanny as a historical romance/adventure novel I couldn’t wait to read it. The problem for me seems to be that for all the outlandish things that happen to Fanny throughout the novel, it never really engaged or immersed me in the plot. Huge events like kidnappings kind of come and go within highly repetitive monologues, with no action or honest emotion. Between characters there is a never-ending discussion of philosophy, but rarely any moments of true connection or conversation, which kept leaving me wondering - why should I care?

Along with this, the writing style seemed more and more contrived as I went on, and the characters’ voices began to grate on me. I’m all for reviving old speaking and writing styles, and I love curling up with classics. Here though, I couldn’t get through a page without Fanny interrupting the plot with “O” this, “AH” that, and it became increasingly repetitive and unnecessary. She continues to wax about the plight of women (which I’m not denying exists,) and while she does observe some truly awful things...nothing really that bad happens to her? At least it doesn’t in the first 3/4 of the story. She comes from a place of relative privilege, and she never comes to realize it in the least, and in every situation she is thrown into she ends up in a much better way than all the “commoners” she spends so much time around, and never emotes in a relatable way.

All in all it was entertaining enough to finish, but there was a bit too much to slog through to get to the fun parts. This story had so much potential to be exciting and even poignant at times, that I found it to be flatly disappointing.

[Craig Masten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eirica Jong has been accused by some readers of writing essentially pornographic novels, but my definition of porn is that it's dedicated to stimulating bodily instincts entirely, while I find anything Jong writes appeals to the thoughty as well as the naughty bits. This book, a historical/literary reimagining of the bawdy early English novel Fanny Hill which has found itself hidden in bookshelves and under the mattresses of many a man and boy and maybe as many woman and girl since it was written during the eighteenth century. In one of the early chapters she says the ancient Greek poets and playwrights understood, as did their great ancestor Shakespeare, how tragedy and comedy are intermingled in art as in life. Just so is sexuality. We kid ourselves, as Freud was to remind us, to think sex isn't at the bottom (pun intended) of most everything we think and do. In her writing Jong has always made us think as well as feel, shown how to take pleasure in what happens to us, found the humor in human predicaments which are also often awkward, sometimes anxious and occasionally scary. I'm a cat lover (obvious pin avoided), and have noticed those furry little creatures have what seems to me a special ability to enjoy themselves even when upset. Witness them able to purr when you stroke them as they're twitching their tails in obvious anxiety at the veterinarians office. I believe Erica Jong I believes we humans benefit from such ability to take pleasure when and where we can find it, while all the time not losing sight of the fix we're in and how best to fix it. She's a seductive, funny and wise writer who reveals more of what really motivates us than most of us like to admit. At her best you will have much more than pornography, and at her worst pornography raised to an art form. This novel, Fanny" is a tour de force of writing, research, and a lifetime of well-lived personal experience Enjoy. There is no better recommendation.

[Kani · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first it just seemed a bit overdrawn (to say the least) but upon sinking into the book a bit more I realized it was as if I was reading in the 18th century. One of the earliest forms of novel: the travel memoir and at a time when writing as a woman was highly unusual (and unseemly). Thus Erica once again supports women's rights and equality to men even while her heroine lives by some extremely chauvinistic standards. An excellent framework for her soapbox to fit into prettily. Her obvious knowledge of her abstruse subject continued to delight me and her creativity at completing the various strands of her plot's weaving was once again surprising and felt complete. Something whole was created and hangs there now upon my wall, shimmering in languid light of the summer solstice's setting sun.

[Laura Durnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I consider Erica's best novel. Not only does she present an intelligent and dramatic tale, but she conveys it in language appropriate to the 18th century. How she skews male writers that are in the canon is brilliant and hilarious.

[Michaela Sommer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of rogues and whores, weirdos and witches, pirates and highway men, spiced with eroticism and wit that leave your senses tingling and your mind pondering life and beyond. A must read for all women, mothers, feminists and witches out there and for all not-faint-hearted men.

[C Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know what I was getting myself into before reading this. It was given to me by a friend who's very sure this is my type of reading. This is the first novel I read from Erica Jong and my friend was right, I loved it!

I skipped the "book within a book" table of contents as there were some spoilers there. I'm always looking for something new; whenever I get too engrossed reading the same genre for say, 5 books, I need a breath of fresh air and this story provided it.

What an adventure it was! In the beginning it was written in the third person, but the author shifted the perspective to Fanny's. She tells her own story, with every grain of truth, as opposed to the sensational and fabricated accounts by other writers. This could also be a memoir, but the most important reason she wrote her life story is for her daughter Belinda (who's but a name), who wants to explore the real world.

The story was fast-paced, and the events happened in a year or so where our fun and fearless heroine Fanny is introduced. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but all I can say is the ending was very well-written. Fanny's journeys and meetings with the other characters really taught her all she needs to know about life in general. Some of the events were predictable, but that doesn't lessen the excitement the story evoked.

This novel is a roller coaster ride with a lot of loops. The sex was sometimes erotic, and sometimes extreme I was glad she didn't write it in detail. There were some kinkiness I could tolerate but the time with Captain Whitehead was really despicable.

There were dramatic character developments and compelling mysteries that I just couldn't put it down. It was narrated fluently and it didn't drag. Fanny was very consistent in her growth from a lady to a woman of the world. Her relationship with Lancelot stood the test of time; in this narrative there was a lot of loss, regret, hope, despair, lust, and most importantly, love.

What I liked about this novel aside from the colorful story, is Fanny's character. She's very intelligent and forward-thinking. This novel depicts the timeless struggle of women for some measure of equality or empowerment. It was set in the time of the slave trades, colonies. I liked how the author used Fanny's character as a symbol for women writers in those times, and their sad plight. It was great how at that day and age, even the issue on race was tackled.

I loved the immense emotions that ran through this book. The ending tied loose ends, was a happy one, and very enlightening. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Alia Makki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally love Erica Jong and would follow her anywhere. Except when she turns too obnoxious and vain. Or when she impersonates a voice that is not hers for the heck of it. Or when she publishes a whole book with that annoying voice.

In all fairness, it’s a feminist book. It has the right attitude that a woman of Fanny’s profession would have in her defense and dignity. And this book, albeit pockmarked with historical and logical distractions (they were called “sea dogs” in those days, not “sharks”), still worked.

It worked as a good story would work. It worked in the way that it stuck with a heroine’s journey, the storyteller’s logic. It worked when it defied societal reservations, and offered crowd-pleasing endings.

It worked so well that I read it through, till the end, because Jong is Jong. She’s still a good and reliable storyteller. One would almost forgive her choice of subject if only….

But the language, man, oh man. That obnoxious language. How do you get over that without speed-reading and skimming through the pages?

[Tom Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

...found myself unable to generate A Will To Read so I reached into the past (thanks be to Copperfish Books, FLA) and bought a like new hard cover first edition of Jong's Fanny (read it way back in the 80s) and found it to be the tonic I needed. A romp...hack writing? not so when Erica is the writer. The only time the story vexed was when a hapless Fanny found herself locked in Madame Coxtart's upstairs chamber unable to halloo Littlehat. Full of vexation became I, "Nay Fanny find a make do cudgel with which to smash the window pane, your tiny fists-o-fury will simply not do." But on the whole Jong's Fanny was over the top fun. I dyed! (the thinking to that goes back to the Romans and then transferred to The Church as was self evident that a man's climax must shorten his life. Such pleasure must be paid for...see Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe by James A. Brundage.)

[Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mom gave this book to me for christmas. It was written during the midst of the sexual revolution and shows it. In the guise of a historical romance (the writing style does get a little tiresome) it is a feminist anthem and story of how one women- through totally unrealistic means- finds herself. It is a book everyone should read.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well - it's a bawdy, sometimes nearly-pornographic, sometimes disgusting tale. But I love its charm and its sex-positive feminist attitude. I am almost done with it, and the suspense is forcing me to devour it at this point...

[Susan Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jong’s 1980 historical fiction, Fanny: Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones is a masterpiece, in my opinion, a perfect crossroads of historical research and bawdy-ass humor, spotlighting Jong’s enviable intellect.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the hottest, foulest porn that I've ever read. I loved this book.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my top 10. Forever!

[Barbara Rice · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give her points for studying Olde English and trying, but this seems to be an excuse to use medieval words for genitalia.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED IT!!! HIGHLY recommend!!!

[Willa Guadalupe Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sexy, funny, FUN!

[Brian George · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clever book, well researched about he period it portrays. Basically Fanny Hill with a feminist outlook, but almost certainly a more truthful portrayal than the other. The characters are fun and the heroine beguiling, or do I have to say Hero these days? Never quite noticed when the gender neutrality crept in, when actresses became actors etc., and being a writer have never wanted to change that expression or separation! An old fashioned romp, almost erotic at times, but also brutally factual where the brothels, sex, witches covens are portrayed. I did love the book for all that. As a guy I guess it is hard for me to look on it without certain concerns, but I still sympathised with the sentiments, so I guess I'm getting there equality wise. It is the same with all equality issues, you don't realise how ingrained prejudices are in your psyche until you test them from the other side. Obviously it was agood book, as it has made me consider the politics.

[Ken Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my all-time favorite books.
Easily
Read it around a couple thousand times as a very confused teen, and every single time, I was happy to get back in with the adventures of "our Fanny" and the merry band.

I only just recently discovered (as a fully-grown adult with a sizeable beard) that it's meant to be a spoof of an actual much more popular literary work of (almost) the same name. I've never read that version, I highly highly doubt that I ever will.
But this discovery led me to come back and retroactively gash about this fantastic part of my forgotten youth

Maybe I'll pick it up again for read-through number 100028