"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.

作者簡介

約翰．克雷藍 (John Cleland，1709-1789)

英國人，因債務而關進倫敦監獄，郤促成他寫出這部《芬妮希爾》。克雷藍博學的文采令他完全不使用一個猥褻或禁忌的字眼，完成這部膾炙人口的情色小說。但是1749年出版時引起英國教會軒然大波，嚴厲指責《芬妮希爾》將讓國王和子民們墮落腐敗，令克雷藍再次鋃鐺入獄。而本書從此成為官方機構審查情色尺度的標準。

譯者簡介

陳蒼多

台灣人，1942年生，師大英語研究所碩士，現任政治大學英語系教授，專長中英文翻譯，譯有《性的智慧 365──全方位性學問答》、薩德《臥房裡的哲學》、昆德拉《賦別曲》、羅斯《我是乳房》、《我妹妹與我：尼采佚失的最後告白》、毛姆《巴黎的異鄉人》、D.H. 勞倫斯《兒子與情人》、伊娃．恩斯勒《陰道獨語》、巴特勒《肉身之道》等兩百餘種。譯筆流暢純熟，忠實呈現原著精義。