CLELAND, John Memoirs of Fanny Hill. A Woman of Pleasure

THE “FIRST ENGLISH PROSE PORNOGRAPHY”

8vo., finely bound for subscribers in contemporary half red morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, ruled in gilt; spine fully decorated in gilt with five raised bands, place and date to foot, and with title lettering to the second compartment; upper edge gilt; marbled endpapers; pp. [xxi], 2-249, [xi], with original pink wrappers lettered and decorated in blue bound in, along with the original paper spine, featuring fleur-de-lys borders and cherub devices; containing 15 highly graphic black and white plates behind captioned tissue guards; a little rubbing to edges of boards; a scuff mark to the lower boards causing a little loss to the marbled paper; sporadic spotting throughout; a very good example of this rare edition. 

Limited edition, one of just five hundred copies issued for subscribers only, numbered on the press. This copy no. 72. 

The early life of John Cleland is mostly unrecorded. Born in Kingston, he attended Westminster School before being employed in the service of the East India Company. He lived in Bombay until 1740, when he travelled back to England, destitute and unemployed. By 1748 his fortunes had fallen so much further that he was imprisoned for unpaid debts. It is likely that Fanny Hill had been written in several installments before this time, but it was finalised while Cleland was serving his year of time in Fleet prison. 

The plot centres around Frances 'Fanny' Hill, by then a rich English woman, who is asked to recount the exploits of her early life through a series of letters to an unnamed acquaintance. The reader follows Fanny through her first experiences of a brothel, her first love and a series of sexual experiences with multiple partners, both men and women. These include the loss of her virginity, group activities and sado-masochism. 

The first editions of the book appeared in installments, with the first published in November 1748 and the second in February 1749. Cleland’s release from prison in March 1749 was unsurprisingly short lived when he was arrested again, along with the publisher and printer of Fanny Hill, in November of the same year. He subsequently disavowed the book, claiming in court that he "wish[ed] from my Soul", that the book be "buried and forgot". It was withdrawn and not legally published again for over a hundred years, although it of course continued to sell well in pirated editions. It remained suppressed in an unexpurgated form until 1962 in the US, and 1970 in the UK. 

Fanny Hill is of particular note for its clever use of language and its use of euphemism. Explicit language and swear words are completely absent, and Cleland uses literary devices to describe genitalia (referring, in several instances, to a woman’s ‘nethermouth’). Indeed in a later letter to Boswell in 1772, Cleland claimed that he had first written Fanny Hill whilst in Bombay, in an attempt to demonstrate that it was possible to write about prostitution without using vulgar terms. 

This particular edition is notable for its erotic plates, which were reserved for subscribers only. It utilises the earliest original and most complete known text. 

Rare thus. 

SKU: 1800223