FANNY HILL OR MEMOIRS OF A WOMAN OF PLEASURE PB – JOHN CLELAND-PETER WAGNER

"Forced by the death of her parents to seek her fortune in London, Fanny Hill is duped into prostitution by an old procuress. In Mrs Brown s bawdy-house the naive young woman begins her sexual initiation – progressing from innocence to curiosity and desire – and soon embarks on her own path in pursuit of pleasure, until she at last finds true love. John Cleland s story of Fanny s rise to respectability was denounced after its publication by the then Bishop of London as an open insult upon Religion and good manners , while James Boswell called it a most licentious and inflaming book . But beside its highly entertaining and boisterous depictions of a startling variety of sexual acts, Fanny Hill stands as one of the great works of eighteenth-century fiction for its unique combination of parody, erotica and philosophy of sensuality."