The Library of Stephen J. Farber

One volume in 2, 8vo (197 x 127 mm). Half-titles, title-page printed in red and black. (Some browning near gutter to second half-title.) Contemporary green cloth gilt (light rubbing to extremes, front hinges slightly starting). Provenance: C. Beaufort Hunt (armorial bookplate).

"New and Genuine Edition" of the first English erotic novel, published here with the suppressed passage of a homosexual encounter. First published in London in 1748-49, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure—better known as Fanny Hill—appeared anonymously under the authorship of John Cleland, who is believed to have written the work while imprisoned for debt. Issued in two parts by the publisher Fenton Griffiths, the novel quickly attracted notoriety for its explicit content, becoming one of the earliest and most famous works of English-language erotic fiction. Its publication coincided with growing anxieties over print culture and public morality in mid-18th-century Britain, and it was swiftly suppressed: both Cleland and Griffiths were arrested, and the book was formally condemned as obscene. 

[With:] CLELAND. Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill). London: Published for Bibliothiles, 1894. 2 volumes, 8vo. Illustrated. Original red cloth (hinges broken, contents loose, sold as is); folding case. LIMITED EDITION, number 25 of 50 copies.