Fanny Hill

John Cleland's classic erotic novel, published in 1748, was banned in the United States until 1966.


 * Anything That Moves: Phoebe... Louisa...
 * Author Appeal: Cleland wrote it from prison, as a young man.
 * Band of Brothels: Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Cole's establishments, though they differ exceedingly in particulars...
 * Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: Mrs. Brown and Mr. Croft.
 * Be a Whore to Get Your Man: Fanny's M.O., really.
 * Bury Your Gays
 * Come Back to Bed, Honey
 * Do Not Do This Cool Thing: "...if I have painted vice in all its gayest colours, if I have deck'd it with flowers, it has been soley to make the worthier, the solemner sacrifice of it, to virtue." Sure you did, sweetie.
 * Double Standard: Around every corner.
 * Even the Girls Want Her: Fanny.
 * Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Duh.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: Fanny. "Auburn". Right.
 * High-Class Call Girl: Fanny, eventually.
 * IKEA Erotica: Only rather purple-y.
 * Interplay of Sex and Violence: Oh, Norbert...
 * Jizzed in My Pants: Mr. Croft.
 * A Man Is Not a Virgin: Except maybe Charles, and probably William. Not that they last long.
 * My Girl Is a Slut: Bless her heart.
 * Of Corsets Sexy
 * Out with a Bang: Mr. Norbert, in the most recent film version, at least.
 * A Party - Also Known as an Orgy
 * Pimped-Out Dress: Or rather, a dress in which to be pimped out. Interchangeable, really.
 * Ready for Lovemaking: Heeeey Wiiiiilliam!
 * Really Gets Around: Several of the girls. Every girl we meet, actually.
 * Rule 34: And HOW!
 * Sex Montage
 * Show Some Leg
 * Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: Somewhere around Level 2, mostly.
 * STD Immunity
 * Technical Virgin: For a good 45 pages, anyway.
 * Unreliable Narrator, on two levels
 * In universe: Fanny claims to have suffered a Convenient Miscarriage but many critics suspect she actually had an abortion. She's been abandoned, she owes the equivalent of 200 years' wages (at an honest job) to her landlady, and the landlady is an abortionist. She also can't work as a prostitute while pregnant at the time.
 * In Real Life Cleland took his plot from stories he was told by the prostitutes he met in prison. Unfortunately, it appears that their stories were nothing but self-justifying lies, since prostitution at the time wasn't anything like Cleland describes.
 * Unusual Euphemism: The word "machine" will never be the same.
 * Whip It Good