In 1772, John Cleland told Boswell that he had written Fanny Hill for a dare, to show a friend it was possible to write about prostitution without using “vulgar” terms. [1]
John Cleland, the 18th-century English author best known for his controversial and groundbreaking work, Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, led a life marked by financial struggles and literary pursuits.
Born on 24 September 1709, Cleland came from a well-connected family, but despite his privileged background, he faced financial difficulties throughout his life.
In 1748, Cleland was arrested for debt and thrown in prison, where he remained for over a year. While in prison he finalised Fanny Hill, his most famous and infamous work. The novel, which is considered one of the first erotic novels in English literature, was published in two instalments, November 1748 and February 1749, before he was released from prison. Cleland later disavowed the novel and said that he could only “wish, from my Soul”, that the book be “buried and forgot”.
The novel tells the story of Fanny Hill, a young woman who becomes a prostitute in 18th-century London. The explicit content and sexual themes of the book led to its censorship and banning contributing to its notoriety. It was officially withdrawn and not legally published again for over a hundred years. It continued to sell well in pirated editions, but Cleland found himself in financial ruin.
Cleland wrote novels, books on medicine and philology, and journalism but never achieved a comfortable living from his writing. He died unmarried on 23 January 1789, aged 79, and was buried in St Margaret’s churchyard in London.
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