I find it important to read a classic every now and then, and this certainly was one that should be read, at least by anyone writing explicit fanfic today. For starters, it has a rather beautiful 164 word sentence describing the nether regions of a gentleman, and that in itself is an accomplishment. There's a lot of sex, and oddly enough it doesn't get as monotonous as you'd think. The main character goes through men and decadence with such ease that you end up feeling breathless. And then, just as you've gotten lulled up in the endless penetration and debauchery, the main character witnesses two homosexuals and embarks on an absolutely livid rant on their disgusting and illegal abnormality. It was jarring, but then again I'd perhaps momentarily forgotten that the book was written by a man in the 18th century. Took me a long time to get back to the book and finish it, and whatever little was left was thoroughly tainted by that one sudden rant.

Very explicit, which is good. Very dull, which is bad.
I'm left feeling completely unchanged, but it at least entertained me enough to finish.

Interesante lectura, en su momento fue provocador, para mí en este tiempo se me hace hasta algo moralista.

The steamiest of steams. Modern erotica has nothing on this.

Amusing and entertaining, with tons of euphemisms. More direct than I initially thought, but it never gets tacky, because the language is poetic and beautiful (which people who are focused too much on getting shocked by the steamy porn scenes may miss). I will never again think that 18th century literature is dry.

Thanks Martinborough op shop.
One of the stars just had to be given because I got through the whole thing (morbid curiosity?)
The other comes from my surprise that it didn't have a moralistic ending

The number of stars is related not to the quality of the book but to this being a fascinating piece of literature and history that I could write essays on both from a literature perspective and from a feminist perspective. But mostly I just thought it was unintentionally pretty hilarious at times. Decently written for 18th century literature.

Love this as an anti-Pamela response, very creative use of innuendo and euphemism to be as pornographic as possible without being explicit. Although there was some interesting exploration of women's pleasure and the b.s. of virginity/"virtue", I still found the narrative lens insidiously voyeuristic. Surprisingly (or maybe not!) I saw lots of links between this and Zola's 'Nana' which I read recently.