Fanny Hill

302 Pages·1748·23.82 MB·English

by  John Cleland

MEMOIRS
OF
FANNY HILL
il.
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MEMOIRS
OF
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JOHN CLELAND
A
new and genuine edition
from the original text (London, 174)
411.
.w
(cid:127)
PARIS
ISIDORE LISEUX
19,
PASSAGE CHOISEUL
1888
Tat
THE NEW
PUBLIC LIBRARY
A
817823
AND
ASTOR, LENOX
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
1.936 (cid:9)
Id
NOTICE OF CLELAND
OHN CLELAND, the author of the
famous romance which we present
here in its original form, was born
iiitagagna in 1707; the biographers do not
indicate the place of his birth. He was the son
of Colonel Cleland, the original of Will Honey.
comb. one of the members of the fictitious
Spectator Club of Steele and Addison. The dissi-(cid:127)
pation of his father left John Cleland without
fortune, but he had the advantage of a good
education, received at the Westminster School,
after leaving which he received an appoint'
ment in the public service, as consul at Smyrna.
a
Later he occupied a post of some kind under
the Government of the Bombay Presidency, but,
in consequence of a quarrel with his chiefs, he
suddenly resigned and returned to England.
There, without employment, and having no
regular means of existence, he fell into a state
of penury bordering on misery; and among the
unhappy experiences forced upon Cleland by
want, it is said that he nude practical acquaint-
ance with the warm side of the prison walls.
It was in these circumstances, they add, that
the Devil found him a ready prey, and that,
tempted by one of those Booksellers, c who
disgrace their profession *, he wrote the celeb-
rated Memoirs of Fanny Hill, and so sullied
his name with u a stigma that time will not
wash away » . But, with the leave of the squeam-
ish critic who takes the liberty . to censure,
in this presumptuous fashion, a work displaying
proof of knowledge and keen observation, we
make bold to say that Fanny Hill is not a slip-
shod job, done to order in a hurry, but, on the
contrary, the production of a true literary artist,
a work conceived and executed con: amore and
finis,ged with all the care and talent of which
the author was capable. It is very likely indeed
n(cid:127)(cid:127)=111 (cid:9)
4ININIMIlo
that Cleland sold his manuscript, but what is
more legitimate?
(cid:9)
(cid:127)
Be that as it may, the story has it that Cleland
(cid:127)
was summoned before the Privy Council for this
publication, and, pleading poverty as his excuse,
the President, Earl Granville, on condition of
his abstaining from such writings for the future,
generously had a pension of e wo, a year,
bestowed on him. He enjoyed this pension till
his death, and faithfully observed the condi-
tions.
With the exception of two or three novels,
the best known of which is The Memoirs of a
Coxcomb, and some pieces for the theatre, Cie-
land produced no other literary work of note.
He possessed a rich library of rare books, was
an excellent linguist, speaking the principal Ian
uages with fluency and ease, and he devoted
the latter part of his life to philological and poll.-
tical writings. His conversation was particul-
arly entertaining and his society much courted
by a circle of choice friends, whom he charmed
with his rich humour and out of his inexhaust-
ible store of curious knowledge and witty am-
dote. Remorse for his Fanny, the capital sin
of his hot youth, lay lightly on his soul. He
vul
nn(cid:127)rmo
died in quiet retirement in 1789, at the advanced
age of 82 years.
Students disagree about the date upon which
Fanny Hill first saw the light. It is possible
(cid:9)
(cid:127)
that the first edition appeared in 1747 or 1748.
The old editions (like the rest, that of 1749,
which we reprint here, preserving the orthogra-
phy of the period as nearly as possible) bear
(I)
the title of
MEMOIRS OF A WOMAN OF PLEASURE.
London, printed G. Fenton, in the Strand
by
In 1750, the bookseller Grif-
fiths, publisher of a The Monthly Reviews, issued
a very mild imitation of it under the title of
Memoirs of Fanny Hill, which he announced
with excessive praise in his Review. There is
every probability that it was he who printed the
original edition, and it is stated that the book
brought him a round sum of e in two
1 0,000
or three years, upon which he retired from
business. But it is rather difficult to believe this
statement, when one knows the small propor-
tions to which the sale of a clandestine work is
reduced, and it is impossible to suppose that
(cid:9)
A
(I) This orthography is sometimes irregular ; for
example: indispettsibk, indispensable ; (why, curtsey, courtesy.
DE
1(cid:127)11111MIN 'morrow
Griffiths could have made such profit on his
expurgated edition, which he sold at three shil-
lings, bound in calf.
The bibliography of works of - this kind,
often printed without date, antidated . or counter-
felted, is always obscure and almost impossible
to establish. The bibliography of Fanny Hill
exists, however, and as fully as one can wish,
in the last volume of Pisanus Praxi, Cakna
libroruns tacetukruns, London, 1885, in-4° (i)(cid:127)
Besides the English editions, indications are
given in this publication of pretended French
translations these (all of the last century) are
so abridged that they must be considered as
simple analyses rather than translations, and
have no value whatever beyond that of the good
or bad engravings that accompany them (2).
n(cid:127) nn(cid:127)(cid:127)(cid:127) n=0n
111M1=(cid:127)(cid:127)(cid:127) 11=01111Mmor(cid:9)
(3) Pisanus Frail makes no mention of the edition
of 1749, which is used for the present reprint, contain'.
in 172 and 037 pages, induding tides; it is illustrated
with engravmgs' some of which have no reference to
the subject. The edition of same year that he mentions
contains 228 and 250 pages, including tides.
(2) There exists now a complete and literal French
translation : Missoires is Famiy Hill, par John Cleland
(lvms aims), erdikement tradvits de rAnglais pour la
ININNINO (cid:9) elmErms
As to the English editions of late years, the
(cid:127)
only ones that can be obtained without great
e,
trouble, but costing very dear (c 3 to 4),
one cannot imagine any thing more detestable
and wretched. Without speaking of bad paper
and microscopic print, the text is incomplete and
curtailed in many places; moreover, the whole
matter is impudently falsified, under the pretext
of modernising, thus completely disfiguring the
work.
The Memoirs of Fanny Hill deserve better
treatment : it is an agreable book that one
reads from end to end with genuine pleasure
and without fatigue. The story is simple, light
and well sustained; the characters, being taken
from nature, are neither artificial nor forced;
and the language is relatively chute and free
from vulgarity. English literature does not
possess in this class any work more remarkd(cid:127)
able, nor, in fact, more innocent, if one coin-
pares it with the monstrosities of the Sadic
school with which recent publications are
prat:are fois, par Isidore Liseux. Impritni ti z6; exemplaires
pour Isidore Liseux et us amis. Paris, 1887, small fivo.