Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

by John Cleland

Overview

Description

One of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. The classic novel of a young girl's exploration of physical pleasures. Young Fanny Hill is tricked into a life of prostitution, but she quickly learns the power of her own body as she learns the ways of physical passion. She soon escapes her fate for the loving arms of a wealthy young man, but misadventure and fate conspire to keep her from domestic bliss. Instead, Fanny discovers that sex need not be just for love; that it can be had for pleasure. She then sets out to explore those pleasures in as wide a variety as she can. With old men and young, and women as well; in positions of power, and situations where she has none; either watching or participating, Fanny's journey through the realms of sexual pleasure is a literary tour-de-force. Presented with classically bawdy illustrations from fin-de-siecle French artist Paul Avril, and an introduction placing the work in historical context, this complete, unexpurgated edition is the ultimate presentation of the original erotic novel.

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About the author

John Cleland (c. 1709, baptised - 23 January 1789) was an English novelist best known for his fictional Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, whose eroticism led to his arrest. James Boswell called him "a sly, old malcontent".

John Cleland began courting the Portuguese in a vain attempt to reestablish the Portuguese East India Company. In 1748, Cleland was arrested for an £840 debt (equivalent to a purchasing power of about £100,000 in 2005) and committed to Fleet Prison, where he remained for over a year. It was while he was in prison that Cleland finalised Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. The text probably existed in manuscript for a number of years before Cleland developed it for publication. The novel was published in two instalments, in November 1748 and February 1749. In March of that year, he was released from prison.

However, Cleland was arrested again in November 1749, along with the publishers and printer of Fanny Hill. In court, Cleland disavowed the novel and said that he could only "wish, from my Soul", that the book be "buried and forgot" (Sabor). The book was then officially withdrawn and not legally published again for over a hundred years. However, it continued to sell well in pirated editions. In March 1750, Cleland produced a highly bowdlerised version of the book, but it too was proscribed. Eventually, the prosecution against Cleland was dropped and the expurgated edition continued to sell legally.

leland's account of when Fanny Hill was written is difficult. For one thing, the novel has allusions to other novels that were written and published the same year (including Shamela). Further, it takes part in the general Henry Fielding/Samuel Richardson battle, with Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded on one side and Joseph Andrews on the other. Furthermore, the novel's geography and topicality make a Bombay composition less likely than a Fleet Prison one. It is possible, of course, that a pornographic novel without vulgarity was written by Cleland in Bombay and then rewritten in Fleet Prison as a newly engaged and politically sophisticated novel. ...(wikipedia.org)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798888304280
Publisher:	Bibliotech Press
Publication date:	01/09/2023
Pages:	178
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

John Cleland (1709-1789) was an English novelist. Born in Surrey, he was raised in London. His father William Cleland was a military officer and civil servant who, along with his wife Lucy, was a friend of such literary and political figures as Alexander Pope, Viscount Bolingbroke, and Horace Walpole. Cleland attended Westminster School for several years before being expelled for unknown reasons. He joined the British East India Company, traveling to Bombay in 1728 where he worked as a civil servant and lived until 1740. Upon his return to London, he was shunned by his family, and attempted to kickstart the Portuguese East India Company before being arrested for a significant unpaid debt. In Fleet Prison, Cleland wrote Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, an early pornographic novel which was published in two parts and 1748 and 1749, earning him a second arrest upon his release. Despite being barred from legal publication for over one hundred years, illegal and heavily edited copies of the book sold well during Cleland’s lifetime, earning him plenty of infamy without enabling him to profit off his work. Cleland continued to write and publish comedic and satirical works throughout his life, and is remembered today as a controversial figure whose work pushed the boundaries of taste, decency, and legality in a time of extreme conservatism.