The truth behind prostitute Fanny Hill's sexual antics 200 years ago
On this occasion, the earth moved quite literally.
In 1750, severe land tremors struck London, rattling the chinaware in rich houses, toppling old buildings and chimneys in slum quarters, and causing thousands of the capital's inhabitants to flee from the metropolis to safety in the country.
When they returned, it was to the words of their bishop, Thomas Sherlock, denouncing from the pulpit the sins that had brought this divine anger down on their heads.
The taste for bawdy books was among the evils he identified.
"Have not the histories of the vilest prostitutes been published?" he asked his frightened flock.
And he singled out one in particular - 'Memoirs of Fanny Hill, this vile book, the lewdest thing I ever saw.'
Fanny Hill, the story of a country girl who makes her fortune selling sex in the brothels that abounded in London in the 18th century, was pornography.
Literally so, because 'pornography' was a word made up at exactly that time, from Greek roots meaning 'writing about prostitutes'.
It was explicit in its graphic descriptions of sexual couplings - 'the truth, stark naked truth', as its author wrote, full of 'unreserved intimacies' and expressly 'violating the laws of decency'.
The affronted bishop called for 'its progress to be stopped', and so powerful was his voice that its author and publisher were arrested and threatened with prison.
Fanny Hill was banned - and remained illegal for more than 200 years.
der ganze Artikel in der Daily Mail
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