Sarah Mac’s Reviews > Fanny Hill > Status Update

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.” 😂

‘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. 🤭

‘Unable to keep my legs in the agitation I was in, I instantly threw myself down on the bed, where I lay transported, tho ashamed at what I felt. Phoebe lay down beside me & asked me archly if, now that I had seen the enemy & fully considered him, was I still afraid of him? Or did I think I could venture to come to a close engagement with him?’ ….Meaning: how’d you like watching two hot people get it on? 😂

‘He said I had left my maidenhead w/ some hobnail in the country, & was come to dispose of my skim-milk in town, w/ a volley of like abuse which I listened to w/ more pleasure than fond woman did to protestations of love from her darling minion: for, uncapable as I was of receiving any addition to my perfect hatred & aversion, I looked on his railing as my security against his renewing his most odious caresses.’

‘Made as he was thus in mock of man, he was so blind to his own staring deformities as to think himself born for pleasing, & that no woman could see him w/ impunity; in consequence of which idea he had lavished great sums on such wretches as could gain upon themselves to pretend love to his person, whilst to those who had no art or patience to dissemble the horror it inspired he behaved even brutally.’ ….Burn.

‘I soon came to a resolution of making this launch into the wide world by repairing to London in order to seek my fortune, a phrase which, by the bye, has ruined more adventurers of both sexes, from the country, than ever it made or advanced.’