Books

Extremely rare early edition of Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, or Fanny Hill, "the first original English prose pornography, and the first to break away from the dialogue form into the style of the novel" (Foxon, p. 45). First published under the same imprint in an edition dated 1749, the imprint is fictitious, though to what extent is unclear. Under questioning, Ralph Griffiths claimed that the clandestine publication was a joint enterprise with his brother Fenton Griffiths ("G. Fenton" being a disguised version of the latter's name), but it is by no means certain that the brother actually existed. ESTC, locating only one copy of this edition at the Biblioteka Uniwersytecka, Warsaw, Poland, wrongly characterizes this as an abridgement: the text here is in the fully explicit original version - set in two letters, rather than the eleven letters of the abridged and bowdlerized Memoirs of Fanny Hill (1750) - with the only omission the brief homosexual passage in vol. II that was omitted from all 18th-century editions after the first. All 18th-century editions are rare, this edition particularly so: no copy appears in auction records going back to at least 1975, and the Warsaw copy is the only one located in institutional records, including the Private Case of the British Library. Two volumes bound in one, duodecimo (171 x 102 mm), pp. 172; 187. Contemporary calf, smooth spine divided in compartments by decorative gilt rolls, black morocco label, gilt initials "W.H." at foot, sides with decorative gilt roll, marbled endpapers. Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Printed title pages without ornaments or rules, un-illustrated as issued. Early ownership inscription lightly abraded from head of first title. Binding rubbed, especially at the joints, corners worn, spine creased, short tear at lower inner corner of first title without loss, intermittent pale brown marginal stain at lower inner corner throughout, tiny hole in v. 1 C2 costing one letter on verso, small hole at foot of v. 1 E5 touching one letter on verso, occasional short closed tears in inner margin (v. 1, D6-8; v. 2 D8 and F6), small hole at foot of v. 2 B6 touching two letters on verso, some marginal tears with loss to edge of text area but no loss of text (v. 1, D8 and F3; v. 2, E7-8, F12, H7, the latter with old paper repair), these flaws minor only; overall, a very good copy in an unrestored contemporary binding. Ashbee Vol. 3, p. 66 no. 3; not in the British Library.

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, commonly known as Fanny Hill, is an erotic novel by John Cleland first published in 1748. It is considered the first original English prose pornography.