Dictionary of love: In which is contained, the explanation of most of the terms used in that language

by John Cleland, J. F. Dreux de Rodier

Translated by the author of Fanny Hill, and based on a French text by J.F. Dreux de Rodier which was first published in 1741. As such, it is the first dictionary of its kind in English. Dr. Roger Lonsdale, of Balliol College, Oxford, was able to attribute this work to Cleland from an examination of the Bodleian copy of the Monthly Review in which Griffiths (the publisher of the London edition) annotated the reviews, sometimes with the names of otherwise anonymous authors. In November, 1753 Ralph Griffiths, himself a publisher of editions of Fanny Hill, published The Dictionary of Love. He reviewed it in the Monthly Review in December, 1753 where he annotated the opening sentence of the review changing "ingenious author" to "Mr. Cleland." Lonsdale notes that the 10-page preface is by Cleland and that about a quarter of the definitions are also his, the rest being translations from the French.

Dictionary of Love; wherein is the description of a Perfect Beauty: The Picture of a Fop or Macaroni, And a Key to all the Arch Phrases, and DifficultTerms, used in that Universal Language.

239 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1753

About the author

John Cleland (1709 – 1789) was an English novelist, most famous—and infamous—as the author of the erotic novel Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.

He was born in Kingston upon Thames in Surrey but grew up in London, where his father was first an officer in the British Army and then a civil servant; he was also a friend to Alexander Pope, and Lucy Cleland was a friend or acquaintance of both Pope, Viscount Bolingbroke, Chesterfield, and Horace Walpole. The family possessed good finances and moved among the finest literary and artistic circles of London.

Cleland entered Westminster School in 1721, but he left or was expelled in 1723. His departure was not for financial reasons, but whatever misbehavior or allegation had led to his departure is unknown. Historian J. H. Plumb speculates that Cleland's puckish and quarrelsome nature was to blame, but, whatever caused Cleland to leave, he entered the British East India Company after leaving school. He began as a soldier and worked his way up into the civil service of the company and lived in Bombay from 1728 to 1740. He returned to London when recalled by his dying father. Upon William's death, the estate went to Lucy for administration. She, in turn, did not choose to support John.