John Cleland

Memoirs of Fanny Hill John Cleland

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (popularly known as Fanny Hill) is an erotic novel by John Cleland first published in England in 1748. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London. One of the most prosecuted and banned books in history, it has become a synonym for obscenity. The book is written as a series of letters from Frances "Fanny" Hill to an unknown woman, with Fanny justifying her life-choices to this individual. At the beginning of her tale, Fanny Hill is a young girl with a rudimentary education living in a small village near Liverpool. Shortly after she turns 15, both her parents die. Esther Davis, a girl from Fanny's village who has since moved to London, convinces Fanny to move to the city as well, but Esther abandons Fanny once they arrive who thereafter plunges into a world of vice. John Cleland (24 September 1709 ? 23 January 1789) was an English novelist best known as the author of Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.