Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (popularly known as Fanny Hill) is an-erotic novelby English novelist John Cleland first published in London in 1748. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London, it is considered "the first original English prose por-nography, and the first por-nography to use the form of the novel".One of the most prosecuted and banned books in history, it has become a synonym for obscenity.

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, better known as Fanny Hill, is one of the most notorious texts in English literature. As recently as 1963 an unexpurgated edition was the subject of a trial, yet in the eighteenth century John Cleland's open celebration of se-xual enjoyment was a best selling novel.

Fanny's story, as she falls into prost-itution and then rises to respectability, takes the form of a confession that is vividly coloured by copious and explicit physiological details of her carnal adventures. The moral outrage that this has always provoked has only recently been countered by serious critical appraisal.

Cleland's highly entertaining book is a classic of erotica that holds a unique place in English fiction.