Vice in the Service of Virtue: John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
Originally published in two volumes in 1748-9, John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (or Fanny Hill) has long been an underground classic. Because of this underground status, and the prejudicial treatment of literary pornography, Memoirs has never been thoroughly investigated. Above all, insufficient attention has been given to the educational and moral aspects of Cleland’s novel. Cleland’