It's nearly impossible to talk about the evolution and existence ofthe erotic genre without mentioning John Cleland's Fanny Hill.Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, as it was originally penned, waspublished in two installments in 1748 and 1749 in the United Kingdom,the book was immediately censored and banned, and both the author andeditor were imprisoned. Reason: the publication of a work of fictiondepicting the life of a licentious woman and her sexuality in detailand in a manner that was unequivocally and intentionallyobscene.

Fanny Hill's prose is amusing, witty and occasionally reflective, it has the quality of pornography that is self-conscious, as if the book itself were a parody of the famous Moll Flanders thatit resembles so much. When reading its abundant sex scenes withever-changing scenarios, different characters and sexual practicesthat do not always end up to be gratifying for a Fanny who tries tofind herself in the very heart of licentiousness, we acknowledge theenormous influence of this novel - not only in later books of erotica, but in almost every work of written and audiovisual pornography thatwe know today.