Memoirs of Fanny Hill: A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749)Cleland, John
General
Memoirs of Fanny Hill: A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749)
Cleland, John
England -- Fiction; Erotic fiction; Prostitutes -- Fiction
on upon the spur the symptoms of that sweet agony, the melting moment
of dissolution, when pleasure dies by pleasure, and the mysterious
engine of it overcomes the titillation it has raised in those parts, by
plying them with the stream of a warm liquid, that in itself the
highest of all titillations, and which they thirstily express and draw
in like the hot natured leach, which, to cool itself, tenaciously
extracts all the moisture within its sphere of execution. Chiming then
to me, with exquisite consent, as I melted away, his oily balsamic
injection, mixing deliciously with the sluices in flow from me,
sheathed and blunted all the stings of pleasure, whilst a voluptuous
languor possest, and still maintained us motionless, and fast locked in
one another’s arms. Alas! that these delights should be no
longer-lived; for now the point of pleasure, unedged by enjoyment, and
all the brisk sensations flattened upon us, resigned us up to the cool
cares of insipid life. Disengaging myself then from his embrace, I made
him sensible of the reasons there were for his present leaving me; on
which, though reluctantly, he put on his clothes, with as little
expedition, however, as he could help, wantonly interrupting himself,
between whiles, with kisses, touches and embraces I could not refuse
myself to. Yet he happily returned to his master before he was missed;
but, at taking leave, I forced him (for he had sentiments enough to
refuse it) to receive money enough to buy a silver watch, that great
article of subaltern finery, which he at length accepted of, as a
remembrance he was carefully to preserve of my affections.
And here, Madam, I ought, perhaps, to make you an apology for this
minute detail of things, that dwelt so strongly upon my memory, after
so deep an impression; but, besides that this intrigue bred one great
revolution in my life, which historical truth requires I should not
sink from you, may I not presume that so exalted a pleasure ought not
to be ungratefully forgotten, or suppressed by me, because I found it
in a character in low life; where, by the by, it is oftener met with,
purer, and more unsophisticated, than among the false, ridiculous
refinements with which the great suffer themselves to be so grossly
cheated by their pride: the great! than whom, there exist few amongst
those they call the vulgar, who are more ignorant of, or who cultivate
less, the art of living than they do; they, I say, who for ever mistake
things the most foreign to the nature of pleasure itself; whose capital
favourite object is enjoyment of beauty, wherever that rare invaluable
gift is found, without distinction of birth, or station.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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