Cover via Open Library · Open Library
Book · Open Library
- Author
- John Cleland
- First published
- 1749
- Editions
- 283
- Subjects
- Fiction, Prostitutes, English Erotic stories, Sexuality, Social life and customs, Young women, Sex customs, Fiction, erotica
via Open Library
Key facts
- Author
- John Cleland
- Original title
- Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Erotic novel
- Publication date
- 21 November 1748; February 1749
- Publication place
- Great Britain
- Media type
- Print (hardback and paperback)
- Dewey decimal
- 823/.6 19
- Library of congress classification span
- PR3348.C65 M45
via Wikipedia infobox
Internet Archive
textsThe end of obscenity; the trials of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer, and Fanny Hill
Read online at Internet Archive →via archive.org
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Encyclopedic overview
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure – popularly known as Fanny Hill – is an erotic novel by the English novelist John Cleland first published in London in 1748 and 1749. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London, it is considered "the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel". It is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history.
The book exemplifies the use of euphemism. The text has no swearing or explicit scientific terms for body parts, but uses many literary devices to describe genitalia. For example, the vagina is sometimes referred to as "the nethermouth".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Fanny Hill” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.