52-635: 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
104-482: A bibliography and explanatory notes. The collection Launching "Fanny Hill" contains several essays on the historical, social and economic themes underlying the novel. The novel was published in two installments, on 21 November 1748 and in February 1749, by Fenton Griffiths and his brother Ralph under the name "G. Fenton". There has been speculation that the novel was at least partly written by 1740, when Cleland
156-464: A brothel. She sees a sexual encounter between an ugly older couple and another between a young attractive couple, and participates in a lesbian encounter with Phoebe, a bisexual prostitute. A customer, Charles, induces Fanny to escape. She loses her virginity to Charles and becomes his lover. Charles is sent away by deception to the South Seas, and Fanny is driven by desperation and poverty to become
208-403: 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. None of Cleland's literary works provided him with a comfortable living and he was typically bitter about this. He publicly denounced his mother before her death in 1763 for not supporting him. Additionally, he exhibited
260-524: A letter from Newcastle to the Attorney General , requesting the prosecution of Cannon. Cannon and his printer were arrested but released on bail of £400 each. Cannon fled abroad for three years. The printer was sent to trial, found guilty, and fined, imprisoned for a month, and also subjected to the public torture of the pillory . Cannon's mother successfully petitioned the Duke of Newcastle for
312-578: A life of contentment with her loving husband Charles and their children, to an unnamed acquaintance identified only as 'Madam.' Fanny has been prevailed upon by 'Madam' to recount the 'scandalous stages' of her earlier life, which she proceeds to do with 'stark naked truth' as her governing principle. The first letter begins with a short account of Fanny's impoverished childhood in a Lancashire village. At age 14, she loses her parents to smallpox , arrives in London to look for domestic work, and gets lured into
364-563: A newly engaged and politically sophisticated novel. Officially, Fanny Hill remained suppressed in an unexpurgated form until 1970 in the United Kingdom. However, in 1966 it became the subject of a US Supreme Court judgment A Book Named "John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" v. Attorney General of Massachusetts , holding that under the US Constitution a modicum of merit precluded its condemnation as obscene. In fact,
416-469: 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
468-672: A religious tendency toward Deism that branded him as a heretic. Meanwhile he accused Laurence Sterne of "pornography" for Tristram Shandy . In 1772, he told Boswell that he had written Fanny Hill while in Bombay, that he had written it for a dare, to show a friend it was possible to write about prostitution without using "vulgar" terms. At the time, Boswell reported that Cleland was a "fine, sly malcontent". Later, he would visit Cleland again and discover him living alone, shunned by all, with an "ancient and ugly woman" as his sole servant. Josiah Beckwith in 1781 said, after meeting him, that it
520-522: A sado-masochistic session with a man involving mutual flagellation with birch-rods. These are interspersed with narratives which do not involve Fanny directly; for instance, three other girls in the house (Emily, Louisa and Harriett) describe their own losses of virginity, and the nymphomaniac Louisa seduces the immensely endowed but imbecilic "good-natured Dick". Fanny also describes anal intercourse between two older boys (removed from several later editions). Eventually Fanny retires from prostitution and becomes
572-609: A serious falling out with Cleland which indirectly led to his prosecution. In 1748, Cleland was sent to prison for failing to pay debts to Cannon and another man. It was while in prison that Cleland published Fanny Hill . Just before the second volume appeared, Cannon lodged a legal complaint against Cleland, claiming that he was now sending anonymous letters containing abusive and slanderous accusations. Cleland accused Cannon of attempted murder, and of being homosexual. Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify’d , 1749 A few weeks after Cleland's accusations, Cannon arranged
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#1732786560955624-731: A sign in the window of the Magic Shop in Tottenham Court Road in London, run by Ralph Gold. An officer went to the shop, bought a copy, and delivered it to Bow Street magistrate Sir Robert Blundell, who issued a search warrant. At the same time, two officers from the Metropolitan Police 's Obscene Publications Branch visited Mayflower Books in Vauxhall Bridge Road to determine whether copies of
676-636: Is conventional for the time, in that it denounces sodomy, frowns upon vice and approves of only heterosexual unions based upon mutual love. The plot was described as 'operatic' by John Hollander , who said that "the book's language and its protagonist's character are its greatest virtues". Literary critic Felicity A. Nussbaum describes the girls in Mrs Cole's brothel as " 'a little troop of love' who provide compliments, caresses, and congratulation to their fellow whores' erotic achievements". According to literary critic Thomas Holmes, Fanny and Mrs Cole see
728-484: Is never punished for them. In fact, Fanny is ultimately able to achieve her own happy ending when she is able to find Charles again, marrying him and living in a life of wealth. This can be viewed in sharp contrast to a work like Pamela , where sexual acts are avoided for the sake of maintaining virtue. Meanwhile, within Fanny Hill , normally deplorable acts can be conducted with little to no consequence. Because of
780-418: Is not a total fix to forget her emotions. Andrea Haslanger argues in her dissertation how the use of first-person narrative in the 18th century "undermines, rather than secures, the individual" in classic epistolary novels like Roxana by Daniel Defoe , Evelina by Fanny Burney , Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and specifically Fanny Hill . Haslanger claims that "the paradox of pornographic narration
832-475: Is that it mobilizes certain aspects of the first person (the description of intimate details) while eradicating others (the expression of disagreement or resistance)" (19). With this in mind, she raises the question of "whether 'I' denotes consciousness or body or both" (34). With sexual acts being viewed as taboo within 18th-century England, Fanny Hill strayed far away from the norm in comparison to other works of its time. A large portion of books that focused on
884-561: The Ancient and Modern Pederasty... , "It's no coincidence that they simultaneously produced the only two explicit accounts of male same-sex desire in English before the nineteenth century, published just a month apart in 1759." That may, however, simply reflect Cleland's knowledge of his friend's research and the opportunity to use it in a novel that had a rare explicitness for the time. In 1969, Molly Hill. Memoirs of The Sister of Fanny Hill
936-616: The United States Supreme Court ruled in Memoirs v. Massachusetts that Fanny Hill did not meet the Roth standard for obscenity. The art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann recommended the work in a letter for "its delicate sensitivities and noble ideas" expressed in "an elevated Pindaric style". The original work was not illustrated, but many editions of this book have contained illustrations, often depicting
988-621: The United States. In 1821, a Massachusetts court outlawed Fanny Hill . The publisher, Peter Holmes, was convicted for printing a "lewd and obscene" novel. Holmes appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court . He claimed that the judge, relying only on the prosecution's description, had not even seen the book. The state Supreme Court was not swayed. The Chief Justice wrote that Holmes was "a scandalous and evil disposed person" who had contrived to "debauch and corrupt"
1040-440: The book have frequently featured illustrations, many have been of poor quality. An exception to this is the set of mezzotints , probably designed by the artist George Morland and engraved by his friend John Raphael Smith that accompanied one edition. The novel consists of two long letters (which appear as volumes I and II of the original edition) written by Frances 'Fanny' Hill, a rich Englishwoman in her middle age, who leads
1092-535: The book were kept on the premises. They interviewed Powell, the publisher, and took away the five copies there. The police returned to the Magic Shop and seized 171 copies of the book, and in December, Gold was summonsed under section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 . By then, Mayflower had distributed 82,000 copies of the book, but it was Gold who was being tried, although Mayflower covered
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#17327865609551144-515: The book's notoriety (and public domain status), numerous adaptations have been produced. Some of them are: Thomas Cannon (author) Thomas Cannon (1720–?) of Gray's Inn was an English author of the 18th century. He wrote what may be the earliest published defence of homosexuality in English, Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd (1749) and may also have collaborated with John Cleland , author of Fanny Hill . A son of Robert Cannon, Dean of Lincoln , Cannon had
1196-473: The character of Pamela is able to resist sexual temptation, thus maintaining her virtue and being rewarded in the end with a prosperous life. However, Fanny Hill was widely considered to be the first work of its time to focus on the idea of sexual deviance being an act of pleasure, rather than something that was simply shameful. This can be seen through Fanny's character partaking in acts that would normally be viewed as deplorable by society's standards, but then
1248-465: The charges against her son to be dropped, claiming he was repentant, and indeed, wished to return to England not only because of financial necessity, but in order to publish a retraction or recantation of the original pamphlet. No such text has ever come to light. After returning to England, Cannon lived quietly at Windsor with his mother and sisters, and never returned to public life again. No copies of Cannon's pamphlet appear to have survived. The text
1300-486: The citizens of Massachusetts and "to raise and create in their minds inordinate and lustful desires". In 1963, after the 1960 court decision in R v Penguin Books Ltd that allowed the continuing publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover , Gareth Powell 's Mayflower Books published an uncensored paperback version of Fanny Hill . The police became aware of the 1963 edition a few days before publication, having spotted
1352-419: The end of the first letter. The second letter begins with a rumination on the tedium of writing about sex and the difficulty of driving a middle course between vulgar language and "mincing metaphors and affected circumlocutions". Fanny then describes her adventures in the house of Mrs Cole, which include a public orgy, an elaborately orchestrated bogus sale of her "virginity" to a rich dupe called Mr Norbert, and
1404-465: 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", which is also an example of psychological displacement . A critical edition by Peter Sabor includes
1456-403: The homosexual act thus: "the act subverts not only the hierarchy of the male over the female, but also what they consider nature's law regarding the role of intercourse and procreation". There are numerous scholars who claim that Fanny in her name refers to a woman's vulva , or that Hill refers to the mons pubis , mound of Venus. However, this interpretation lacks corroborating evidence:
1508-427: The idea of sex were written in the form of conduct novels: books that would focus on teaching women the proper ways to behave and live their lives in as virtuous a manner as possible. These novels encouraged women to stay away from sexual deviance, for if they were to remain virtuous then they would ultimately be rewarded. One example of this is Samuel Richardson 's conduct novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded , in which
1560-427: The kept woman of a rich merchant named Mr H—. After enjoying a brief period of stability, she sees Mr H— have a sexual encounter with her own maid, and goes on to seduce Will (the young footman of Mr H—) as an act of revenge. She is discovered by Mr H— as she is having a sexual encounter with Will. After being abandoned by Mr H—, Fanny becomes a prostitute for wealthy clients in a pleasure-house run by Mrs Cole. This marks
1612-472: The legal costs. The trial took place in February 1964. The defence argued that Fanny Hill was a historical source book and that it was a joyful celebration of normal non-perverted sex—bawdy rather than pornographic. The prosecution countered by stressing one atypical scene involving flagellation, and won. Mayflower elected not to appeal. Luxor Press published a 9/6 edition in January 1964, using text "exactly
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1664-629: The lover of a rich and worldly-wise man of 60 (described by Fanny as a "rational pleasurist"). This phase of Fanny's life brings about her intellectual development, and leaves her wealthy when her lover dies of a sudden cold. Soon after, she has a chance encounter with Charles, who has returned as a poor man to England after being shipwrecked. Fanny offers her fortune to Charles unconditionally, but he insists on marrying her. The novel's developed characters include Charles, Mrs Jones (Fanny's landlady), Mrs Cole, Will, Mr H— and Mr Norbert. The prose includes long sentences with many subordinate clauses. Its morality
1716-426: The novel is now regarded as a "stylistic tour de force" and as a participant in the "making legible the bourgeois remapping of certain categories constitutive of 'woman', and then exposing that remapping as ludicrous" (Gautier x). It has an exceptionally lively style, contains profoundly playful and ironic questions about womanhood, and has a satirical exposition of love as commerce and pleasure as wealth. The fact that
1768-430: The novel's sexual content. Distributors of the novel such as John Crosby were imprisoned for "exhibiting [not selling] to sundry persons a certain lewd and indecent book, containing very lewd and obscene pictures or engravings". Sellers of the novel such as Peter Holmes were imprisoned and charged that they "did utter, publish and deliver to one [name]; a certain lewd, wicked, scandalous, infamous and obscene print, on paper,
1820-424: The pamphlet Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd (1749), the earliest surviving published defence of homosexuality in English (Gladfelder). The authorised edition of Fanny Hill also contains a scene where Fanny (to her disgust) comes across two teenage boys fornicating. The friendship of Cleland and Cannon was "volatile, verging on murderous", but in the opinion of Gladfelder, who rediscovered
1872-478: The passionate descriptions of copulatory acts in Fanny Hill are written by a man from the point of view of a woman, and the fact that Fanny is obsessed by phallic size, have led some critics to suggest it is a homoerotic work. That aspect of the novel, as well as Cleland's presumed offence at Westminster School, lack of intimate friends and unmarried status, have aided conjecture that he was homosexual, as has his bitter falling out with friend Thomas Cannon , author of
1924-546: The point where in 1970 an uncensored version of Fanny Hill was again published in Britain. In 1963, Putnam published the book in the United States under the title John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure . This edition led to the arrest of New York City bookstore owner Irwin Weisfeld and clerk John Downs as part of an anti-obscenity campaign orchestrated by several major political figures. Weisfeld's conviction
1976-484: The printing of Ancient & Modern Pederasty . Despite its illegal subject matter, the pamphlet might never have come to the attention of the authorities had it not been for the embittered Cleland who, after being released from prison for debt, was re-arrested in 1749 for obscenity due to Fanny Hill . Cleland vindictively wrote to the Duke of Newcastle 's law clerk drawing his attention to Cannon's pamphlet. This prompted
2028-427: The same as that employed for the de-luxe edition" in 1963. The back cover features praise from The Daily Telegraph and from the author and critic Marghanita Laski . It went through many reprints in the first couple of years. The Mayflower case highlighted the growing disconnect between the obscenity laws and the permissive society that was developing in late 1960s Britain, and was instrumental in shifting views to
2080-525: 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
2132-538: The shame and regret that she feels for leading a life of adultery, and replaces this shame with the pleasure of sexual encounters with men and women. Even though these feelings may have been replaced or forgotten, she still reflects on her past: "...and since I was now bent over the bar, I thought by plunging over head and ears into the stream I was hurried away by, to drown all sense of shame or reflection". Having little time to think about how she feels about her transition, she masks her thoughts with sexual pleasure, yet this
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2184-470: The stages. Fanny sees the phallus as both an object of terror and of delight. McCracken relates her changing view of the phallus to Burke's theory of the sublime and beautiful. Patricia Spacks discusses how Fanny has been previously deprived by her rural environment of what she can understand as real experience, and how she welcomes the whores' efforts to educate her. Since Fanny is so quickly catapulted into her new life, she has had little time to reflect on
2236-456: The term " fanny " is first known to have been used to mean female genitalia in the 1830s, and no 18th-century dictionary defines "fanny" in this way. Later in the text when Fanny is with Louisa, they come across a boy nicknamed "Good-natured Dick" who is described as having some mental disability/handicap. Louisa brings the boy in anyway, as Dick's functioning physical state supersedes his poor mental one. This scene also leads into an issue within
2288-416: The text of rape (for both Dick and Louisa) and how the possible label of rape is removed by resistance transitioning into pleasure. One scholar, David McCracken, writes about Fanny Hill as a bildungsroman . Her sexual development contains three life stages: innocence, experimentation, and experience. McCracken specifically addresses how Fanny's word selections on describing the phallus change throughout
2340-598: Was "no wonder" that he was thought to be a " sodomite ". From 1782 until his death on 23 January 1789 Cleland lived in Petty France , Westminster , near his childhood home in St James's Place . He died unmarried and was buried in St Margaret's churchyard in London. Cleland'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
2392-422: Was contained in a certain printed book then and there uttered, [2] published and delivered by him said Peter Holmes intitled "Memoirs of a Woman Of Pleasure" to manifest corruption and subversion of youth, and other good citizens ... " None of the story's scenes have been exempt from illustration. Illustrations of this novel vary from the first homosexual experience to the flagellation scene. Although editions of
2444-582: Was eventually overturned in state court and the New York ban of Fanny Hill lifted. The new edition was also banned for obscenity in Massachusetts, after a mother complained to the state's Obscene Literature Control Commission. The Massachusetts high court did rule Fanny Hill obscene and the publisher's challenge to the ban then went up to the Supreme Court. In a landmark decision in 1966,
2496-568: Was once believed that the scene near the end, in which Fanny reacts with disgust at the sight of two young men engaging in anal intercourse , was an interpolation made for these pirated editions, but the scene is present in the first edition (p. xxiii). In the 19th century, copies of the book were sold underground in the UK, the US and elsewhere. In 1887, a French edition appeared with illustrations by Édouard-Henri Avril . The book eventually made its way to
2548-537: Was presumed lost to history until 2003 when what is presumed to be the majority of the work was discovered as quoted extracts in the original indictment against the printer, which survived in the records of the King's Bench . The text was finally published in Eighteenth-Century Life magazine in 2007. What remains of Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd shows that rather than being
2600-453: Was published, referring to the author as John Cleland. It suggests 17th century language, but should be considered an imitation . Fanny Hill 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. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London, it is considered "the first original English prose pornography, and
2652-457: 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
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#17327865609552704-604: Was stationed in Bombay as an employee of the East India Company . Initially, there was no governmental reaction to the novel. However, in November 1749, a year after the first instalment was published, Cleland and Ralph Griffiths were arrested and charged with "corrupting the King's subjects". In court, Cleland renounced the novel and it was officially withdrawn. As the book became popular, pirate editions appeared. It
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