Cleland, John / 2008-07-09 00:00:00
This text was digitized (typed by hand) by
Ted & Florence Daniel
New Wave Publishers
2103 N. Liberty Street
Portland OR 97217-4971
This text is in the public domain.
FANNY HILL
MEMOIRS OF A WOMAN OF PLEASURE
c 1749
by John Cleland
Letter The First
Madam,
I sit down to give you an undeniable proof of my con-
sidering your desires as indispensable orders. Ungracious
then as the task may be, I shall recall to view those scan-
dalous stages of my life, out of which I emerg'd, at length,
to the enjoyment of every blessing in the power of love,
health, and fortune to bestow; whilst yet in the flower of
youth, and not too late to employ the leisure afforded me by
great ease and affluence, to cultivate an understanding,
naturally not a despicable one, and which had, even amidst
the whirl of loose pleasures I had been tost in, exerted
more observation on the characters and manners of the world
than what is common to those of my unhappy profession, who
looking on all thought or reflection as their capital enemy,
keep it at as great a distance as they can, or destroy it
without mercy.
Hating, as I mortally do, all long unnecessary preface,
I shall give you good quarter in this, and use no farther
apology, than to prepare you for seeing the loose part of my
life, wrote with the same liberty that I led it.
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