The book "Fanny Hill" — John ClelandFanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, commonly known as Fanny Hill, has been shrouded in mystery and controversy since John Cleland completed it in 1749. The Bishop of London called the work 'an open insult upon Religion and good manners' and James Boswell referred to it as 'a most licentious and inflaming book'. The story of a prostitute's rise to respectability, it has been recognized more recently as a unique combination of parody, sensual entertainment and a philosophical concept of sexuality borrowed from French libertine novels. Modern readers will appreciate it not only as an important contribution to revolutionary thought in the Age of Enlightenment, but also as a thoroughly entertaining and important work of erotic fiction, deserving of a place in the history of the English novel beside Richardson, Fielding and Smollett.
Получивший скандальную известность и мировую славу роман английского писателя Джона Клеланда (1709 – 1789) "Фанни Хилл. Мемуары женщины для утех" почти два с половиной века называют энциклопедией проституции и сексуальных упражнений. Однако прежде всего это талантливое и высокохудожественное повествование о жизни и любви… Его появление вызвало шок у пуританской английской публики того времени. На сегодня это неотъемлемая часть истории развития английской литературы. | 
