“Truth! Stark naked truth . . .” This book is undoubtedly the most famous erotic novel in English. Published in 1749 (though possibly written, in part, some time earlier), it is set in a realistically depicted eighteenth-century London, firmly connecting John Cleland’s work with that of his contemporaries, Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett. At the beginning of the work, Fanny Hill is a beautiful fifteen-year-old country girl. Having lost her “innocence,” she learns to exploit her sexuality to survive and advance herself in the world. In fashioning this controversial and illicitly popular work, Cleland drew on the largely French fashion for erotic fiction, and the existing genre of the “whore’s autobiography,” which tended to present the whore’s life as a warning against the miseries attendant on sexual indulgence. Strikingly, Cleland feels no compulsion to punish Fanny for her promiscuity, and she ends the novel happily married. Aware that much pornography suffered from repetitiveness, Cleland eschews “crude” or slang terminology for sexual acts or organs, instead producing a dazzling array of metaphors and similes from a seemingly endless supply. Although he unflinchingly depicts the physiological  
pleasure of sex, for both men and women, Fanny’s sexual appetites are surprisingly conservative—while relishing various heterosexual acts, she is conflicted about her own lesbian encounter, and repeatedly speaks with disgust about male homosexuality. After surviving more than two centuries’ worth of moral opprobrium, Cleland’s masterpiece has now emerged as an important work in the development of the novel. It still, however, divides readers, between those who find its vibrant depiction of sexuality liberating, and those who see it as a transparent vehicle for male gratification. RH