John Cleland
John Cleland was an English author born in 1709 in Surrey, London. He is most renowned for his controversial 1748 novel, *Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure*, commonly known as *Fanny Hill*. This work is a first-person narrative detailing the experiences of a young country girl who becomes a prostitute and ultimately seeks respectability. Upon its release, the novel gained immediate popularity but faced suppression from authorities, leading to a trial for obscenity against Cleland. He defended his work by stating that he wrote it out of financial necessity, having previously endured a stint in debtor's prison. Despite being banned for years, *Fanny Hill* was clandestinely published for two centuries before becoming legally available in the United States in 1963 and in England in 1970, sparking further debate. Cleland also authored several other novels, poems, and plays, though none achieved the same level of fame as *Fanny Hill*. He passed away in 1789 and is often recognized by scholars as a pivotal figure in the evolution of the English novel, particularly in the genre of erotic literature.
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John Cleland
Author
- Born: September 1, 1709
- Birthplace: Surrey, London, England
- Died: January 23, 1789
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
Cleland was born in Surrey, London, England, in 1709. After an education at the prestigious Westminster School in London, he spent much of his earlier career in a series of government jobs overseas, including Bombay, India.
Cleland is best recognized for his enormously popular 1748 erotic novel, Memoirs Of A Woman Of Pleasure, more popularly known as Fanny Hill, a first-person narrative of a poor sixteen-year-old country girl seduced into becoming a brothel prostitute and her rise to respectability.
From its first 1748 public notice in London’s General Advertiser, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure was an instant success. However, authorities suppressed the work and put Cleland on trial for immoral behavior and obscenity. Cleland claimed he wrote the book for money, citing his poverty (he had been in debtor’s prison for nine months upon its publication), and was able to avoid prosecution.
The novel launched Cleland’s writing career at age thirty-eight, and in time he counted among his friends such literary luminaries as Alexander Pope. Although the novel was banned soon after its publication, it was nevertheless printed clandestinely for two hundred years before its legal publication in America in 1963 and in England in 1970, when further controversy would arise.
Cleland wrote several more novels, including the 1751 Memoirs of a Coxcomb and The Surprises of Love (1764), neither as successful as Fanny Hill. He also wrote volumes of poems and plays before his death in 1789. Scholars claim Fanny Hill as the first great pornographic novel in English and a significant example of the mid-eighteenth century British novel.