A Blunt History of Two Early Novels

“…the blunt end of that mighty engine … presented itself at the entrance…” ~ Fanny Hill

When novels long ago were male, male, male

And not just written by a man, they tended to

Be read by men and women, not like pale

Ones written by the quills of ladies.  Too,

Too masculine were yarns in content, force

And scope.  Tom Jones was one such well-read book

And Robinson Crusoe, the novel, of course,

The other.  Sex was not at all the hook

Of Crusoe, women hardly mentioned there

(And by the way a much, much more read tale

As though the female were the only spare

For novelists, a never winning chalk).

  In Tom each woman matters only, to be blunt,

    For pleasure as in giving him her cunt.

December 2, 2025; rewritten December 6, 2025