Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Cleland, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199540233 ISBN 13: 9780199540235

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2008

Synopsis

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (commonly known as Fanny Hill), the most famous erotic novel in English, was denounced by its author as 'a Book I disdain to defend, and wish, from my soul, buried and forgot'.
Cleland's critics too condemned the 'infamous' and 'poisonous' novel when it first appeared in 1748-9. But the proliferation of editions, adaptations, and translations since then bears witness not only to the popularity of scandalous novels, but also to the book's literary merit. Recounted with a lively use of metaphor and some curiously moral asides, Fanny Hill's boisterous education as a London prostitute never quite effaces the ingenuous charm of her country upbringing, and her story places her among the great heroines of eighteenth-century literature.
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About this title

Review:

"A rare achievement . . . a ray of sunshine in the gloomy world of lust."
--Erica Jong

-A rare achievement . . . a ray of sunshine in the gloomy world of lust.-
--Erica Jong

About the Author:

John Cleland was born in 1710, eldest son of William Cleland, an officer and friend of the Pope. For a while hoe worked for the East India Company, rising from soldiers to businessman to secretary of the Bombay Council, though he returned to London in 1741. He then became a literary hack and journalist and was imprisoned for debt on several occasions, and on one such occasion used the time to write Fanny Hill. He died in Westminster in January 1789.

Peter Wagner is a lecturer at the Catholic University of Eichstatt in Bavaria. His books in English include a study of Puritanism in colonial New England, and a survey of erotica in the age of Enlightenment.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0199540233
• ISBN 13: 9780199540235
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Sabor Peter