'Though 'tis clear that Mrs. Erica Jong is indebted in the extream to various Wits of the 18th Century, to wit: Mr. Pope, Mr. Fielding, Mr. Defoe and that erotick blood, Mr. John Cleland, still, 'tis they who owe their Thanks to her. For by relating the True History of one Fanny Bellars, also called Hackabout-Jones, Mrs. Erica has fill'd a most lamentable Gap left by these Liter'ry Gentlemen and duly noted by many an English Major of the Female Sex….
Bawdy she may be (by which liter'ry Term we Moderns mean to signify dirty in the extream, but of a classick Style, so 'tis properly acceptable to Persons of high Taste) but she hath also, in abundance, Passion for her Babe, her Good Friends of both Sexes, for the poetic tongue; she hath a prodigious amount of Thought on the Lot of the Fair Sex and of the Black Man and Woman, much Curiosity about the World, and a most commendable striving for Good.
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Read the rest of this Criticism with our Jong, Erica 1942–: Critical Essay by Judith Martin Access Pass.
