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". One of the most prosecuted and banned books in history, it has become a synonym for obscenity.

Author Biography

John Cleland (1709 - 1789) was an English novelist best known as the author of Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. John Cleland was the oldest son of the Scot William Cleland and Lucy Cleland (nee DuPass). He was born in Kingston upon Thames in Surrey but grew up in London, where his father was first an officer in the British Army and then a civil servant. William Cleland was a friend to Alexander Pope and Lucy Cleland was a friend or acquaintance of Pope, Viscount Bolingbroke, Chesterfield and Horace Walpole. The family possessed wealth and moved among the finest literary and artistic circles of London. He entered the British East India Company after leaving school. He began as a soldier and worked his way up into the civil service of the company and lived in Bombay from 1728 to 1740. He returned to London when recalled by his father, who was dying. Upon William's death, the estate went to Lucy for administration. She, in turn, did not choose to support John. Meanwhile, Cleland's two brothers had finished their education at Westminster and gone on to support themselves.