When discussing Jackie J's latest story, the deliciously inventive Madame Deville, one of the readers mentioned a book with a somewhat similar plot I've never heard of: Fanchon's Book by one Zane Pella. I decided to give it a try and, despite its somewhat over-the-top writing style, I did enjoy it. And, with a synopsis promising a story of a servant becoming a master and the master a "willing, lust-craven slave, who can do little more that writhe and slaver in frantic, body-heating desire for yet another opportunity to prove her shuddering submissiveness" how can one not enjoy this book?Fanchon's Book was published in 1972 by Venus Library, a U.S. publishing house originally specializing in re-prints of vintage pornography, in particular American clandestine erotica from the 1920s and 1930s, that also published contemporary S/M stories. There is actually a very interesting story behind Venus Library - you can read more about it here. Fanchon's Book is apparently one of its finer releases. I was unable to find anything else by "Zane Pella", but the book's copyright is held by Gilbert Fox, who wrote a number of soft-porn books throughout the 1960s under pseudonyms Dallas Mayo and Kimberly Kemp.
Fanchon's Book is first and foremost a story of lesbian domination and submission, with lady-to-maid transformation, sadly, rather periphery to the narrative. Still there are some scenes that make it worthwhile, such as this one close to the end:
Amusing-hah!-the ingenious imp had more creativity in her little pinkie that I had in my entire plenum; oh, the whimsical concepts, the extravagant improvisations! She even went shopping and bought a maid's outfit for me, the sexy kind with the low-cut bodice and high-cut skirt (two sizes tight and I had to use a waist-cincher; perfectly scandalous!) and I couldn't figure out where she had gotten such a droll notion, but I was just infatuated old fool enough to put it on and wear it and love it and practically live in it; I curtsied to my exacting mistress and lit her cigarettes and served her breakfast in bed and brushed her hair and bathed and dried and powdered and perfumed her beautiful body and bowed to her demand for a daily manicure and pedicure-ah, what joy to kneel at Miss Kristi's feet and paint her toenails and then kiss them, one by one, in the hope that I might be permitted further liberties-and only after our sweet holiday-at-home suffered its eventual disruption (the return of Oliver, alas!) did I realize that throughout my tenure and observance of a maidservant's rank and customs and duties I hadn't once thought about the "acting game." Not once-even though I was actually playing it.
The story is too long to fully re-publish it this blog, but you can find the whole thing here.
This is a really good story over 19 parts and your right would be to long to post here. Thank you for the link it helped Camille.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome.
DeleteInteresting that there's so much lesbian erotica written by men. There don't seem to be a lot of women interested in writing about gay men. I suppose you could count Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty books. I get the impression that for many male authors of "lady-to-maid" stories, the social change is a metaphor for gender change.
ReplyDeleteI would veture even further and say that virtually all lesbian porn also exists solely for gratification of men. However, there are quite a few lesbians that like gay erotica - wondering if as "revenge" for men's fascination with lesbian sex?
DeleteAs for you observation about gender change, I would turn it on its head. Sex change is a powerful metaphor for social drop/change and not the other way around. I think fascinations with social change (or degradation as its ultimate manifestation) is primary. Sex change is just one way it can be achieved, but not the only one.
Stories of social demotion allow us to safely explore our morbid fascination with a slow-motion train wreck. It's hard to look away from someone who is voluntarily giving up their status and privilege. In years past that might have meant a male to female gender change, but today I think it speaks to our fears of how easily our lives could be ruined if someone else had access to our government issued information. It's frightening to think that without those few pieces of identification, I can't prove that I own my house or that the money in the bank is mine.
DeleteThis is all very true. On the other hand, this very government-issued information makes playing out said fantasies in real life so much harder. Back in the day all it took was moving to America or to Australia and - voila - you have a new life, new name and new background (if you so desired). Imperfections of data keeping and state control until only a few generations ago almost invited people to change lives at will - provided they were good at inventing stories and faking accents.
DeleteThe other side of the coin was that other factors, that we currently play little or no attetion at all, played a disproportionally important role in determining one's position - namely, dress, speech and manners. Today the "upper classes" are filled with people that can't speak elegantly and have no manners or style.
Interesting point...Markers of social class are rapidly becoming unreliable. That implies that plausible stories of social descent will become more difficult to write and carry much less emotional resonance. Already, many such stories seem consciously retro. Perhaps they express nostalgia for a time in which we all knew our places in a well-defined hierarchy. (Much like Regency romances.)
DeleteThey were unreliable to begin with (hence the prevalance of swindlers and "fake European aristocrats" in Victorain times), but now we've reached a point where the only remaining sure differentiator is wealth. And even that can be faked.
DeleteCompletely agree on your retro point. That partially explains my fascination with the period.
This reminds me of something I should have remembered long since: "The Butler's Lady" by Deborah Ryder.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Butlers-Lady-D-Ryder/dp/187154050X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
I read it as a chapbook in the 1980s and found it utterly compelling. I recommend it highly, and I can't imagine why I didn't mention it earlier.
Thank you very much. It doesn't appear to exist electronically and the paper version is out of print. Also there is no synopsis that I could find. What is it about?
DeleteThere may be a way of finding out what “The Butler’s Lady” is about. There is another Deborah Ryder book called “The Servants.” You can buy a Kindle version on Amazon. The synopsis of the book reads as follows:
Delete“In Victorian times, a servant dismissed without a reference would likely starve. To stay alive, the maids and footmen submit to any punishment and degradation by their employers and the upper servants. The butler seizes his opportunity to use the Mistress’s own masochism against her. Ably assisted by a girl from the charity school, he takes control of the household and the mistress of the house, though most women would have the butler executed for this, to Lady Rosalind, it is a dream come true. Having relocated to a repressive European state, the new Master assists in the brutal suppression of revolution, ensuring that the ruling class maintains rigid discipline in all houses and workplaces.”
You can read the first chapter on Amazon’s website.
It certainly seems possible that an earlier version of this book might have been titled “The Butler’s Lady.”
I would also recommend reading the biography of Ms. Ryder on Amazon’s website. See the link
http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/lapam/lapam015.pdf
for one of Ms. Ryder’s non-fiction pieces.
I believe that at one time Ms. Ryder ran a book club, specializing in her books, that was marketed to submissive women. A collection of excerpts from these books was published under the title “Half Dressed, She Obeyed.” I perused this book years ago. Most of the stories were not to my taste, but I had not developed an interest in mistress2maid stories at that time. My recollection is that most of the stories involved ultra-dominant males who wished to enslave ultra-submissive women.
One story, if my memory serves me right, involved a female officer on a starship that landed at some planet populated by aliens. The officer serves as liaison with the aliens. At her first meeting with a high ranking alien, the latter announces that he is going to enslave all the women on the starship. The starship’s officer basically responds by saying, “How can I help?”
Thank you very much!
Delete"The Butler's Lady", which I possess in the form of a saddle-stapled chapbook with a plain blue cover, would appear to be the first part of "The Servants".
DeleteI must seek out this book. The idea of reading more Deborah Ryder after all these years is quite stirring to my blood.
Thanks. The free part available on Amazon seems very well written, even if a bit predictable.
DeleteDeborah Ryder has another book on amazon titled Servants but its only availible on kindle. There is a synopsis posted for anyone interested.
ReplyDelete"There don't seem to be a lot of women interested in writing about gay men."
ReplyDeleteThe fanfic community will be surprised to hear this. Most slash involves males characters presented as straight in canon though, so I suppose you could say that technically they're at least bi.
Interesting point. I never read much fanfic. What I have seen of it looked more like an in-joke for fans than an effort to create a story that could stand on its own. But that's from a limited sampling. As far as published, mainstream fiction is concerned, the quoted statement seems to be true. I guess you could count Mary Renault as a counterexample. Maybe Annie Proulx as well.
DeleteThere is a bit more story to be told here. I was surprised to learn that one of Gil Fox's pseudonyms was "Dallas Mayo." In days of yore, decades ago, I read two or three Dallas Mayo books, which definitely had a mistress2maid flavor.
ReplyDeleteThe books I read were published by Midwood, which I assumed was a primary supplier of product for the adult bookstore trade. Doing some research, I learned that at one time several authors who became mainstream wrote for Midwood, perhaps the most famous being the SF writer Robert Silverberg. There is a link at
http://www.lynn-munroe-books.com/list55/midwood.htm
of an interview with some of the surviving Midwood writers, one of whom is Gil Fox. The latter makes some interesting comments:
+ His name appears on the copywrite page of "Fanchon's Book" by mistake. The publisher screwed up.
+ His Dallas Mayo books were largely lesbian themed, in particular, the "theme in [his] books is the domination of one woman over another, told from the submissive’s viewpoint."
+ He gives a brief overview of his "formula" for writing books, which is worth a read.
Many of the Dallas Mayo books had maids as characters. To tell the truth, I didn't consider his books to be high literature, or superb pornography for that matter, but there was enough of interest to keep me reading.
I notice that several of the Dallas Mayo books are available in electronic form on Amazon. Also many are online and can be found by the persistent googler.
Very interesting, thank you very much!
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