Memoirs of Maria Brown

A very interesting fiction book written in 1766. Of course this is 10 years before the Declaration of Independence and follows the course of a young English Catholic girl sent off to school in France for further education. She is swindled in every way and forced to become a prostitute by necessity in order to survive. This author was a member of the Anglican Church (attended Westminster School, London) and thus making a mockery of Catholics seemed par for the course. In the interest of bringing the novel to a close Cleland shifts his purpose and tries to make it a fictional tale "lessons learned" about survival on the Continent and the British and Irish Isles. There are actually some worthwhile topics on this note to conclude the book show more although it hardly becomes a vehicle of Maria Brown as a heroine. In an earlier age Maria Brown might have been considered a picaresque character. I see that this work is now considered an early work of eroticism but only by 18th Century standards. The primary use of the book for me is to see the talent the author had to use euphemisms for sex and double entendres on a continuous basis page after page. During the English Renaissance there was a similar aversion to Machiavelli and many pamphleteers helped create a whole genre of The Prince as a work of the devil. This book has a similar feel about it over the use of feigned upper class privileges to dupe anyone gullible enough to listen.

Apparently this pulp fiction was written to bail out the author from debtors prison.
It's a short work but worth reading. show less