While studying 'Moll Flander's in my English Lit class in college, the
professor mentioned that there was another book of this genre whose name he
couldn't even mention, lest he be fired. This was in 1969 and he and I were
the only ones in the class that knew which book. Compared to TV and books today, I found nothing explicit in 'Fanny Hill.'
Neither do I. What surprises me is the date ('69) when Fanny Hill was still considered taboo in US; it seems that prudery hung around much longer here than in Poland. In '69, I was in my second year of U (we have 5, so the freshman, sophomore, etc terms do not apply), and both Robinson Crusoe and Fanny Hill were required reading. Both Tom Jones and Moll Flanders were too, as were Pamela and Clarissa. And we all moaned about how boring they were (though, personally, I *liked* Tom Jones; just skipped most of the chapter introductions <g>), especially after having read (compulsory reading list but no seminar or discussion, just an exam) Boccaccio's "Decameron". Which I'd read -- along with Pietro Aretino's books about Nana the courtesan -- when I was 8 (OK, a bit early, so I re-read them all and *understood* them at 16 <g>)
Same course we read an abridged version of Clarissa by Richardson. We were
told that there was a "racy" passage in it. If so, I never noticed it. Of
course, I fell asleep about every 2 pages, so I could have missed it.
Precisely :) When James Joyce's Ulyssess came out in Polish (my 3rd year at U), the first edition sold out like hotcakes because the rumour went there were "dirty passages" in it. I got my copy, as a gift, from my boyfriend's father (the head of the publishing house) and just couldn't finish it, even in Polish (thankfully, it wasn't required reading at the U before the translation came out <g>). Colette's "Claudine" series was racier than that (and the plot moved faster<g>)...
----- Tamara P Duvall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED]
