Memoirs of Fanny Hill

Description

Memoirs of Fanny Hill, John Cleland, illustrations by Paul Avril (The Kamashastra Society, “Paris and Benares” 1907 [false imprint] one of 250)
5.5″ X 7.25″, 235pp, nicely half-bound blue morocco over blue cloth boards, gilt titles and decorations on spine, copies of illustrations by Paul Avril, very good condition for age.

Written while the author was in debtor’s prison in London and first published in 1749, Fanny Hill is considered the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel. One of the most prosecuted and banned books in history, it has become a synonym for obscenity.

Fanny Hill was copied and pirated liberally.  Kamashastra was the imprint that Richard Burton famously used when he translated and published his Arabian Nights.  Kamashastra was also used by Charles Carrington for some of his edition.  So it is not a surprise that clandestine publishers in the US and elsewhere adopted the Kamashastra name on their title pages to lend their editions a hint of authenticity.  This edition is very nicely bound pirate that contains good copies of the famous Paul Avril illustrations.