Roxana by Daniel Defoe (1724)

Originally printed in 1724, Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress was published anonymously and only later attributed to Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. The novel appears as if it is a biography, which was a common trope among 18th-century fiction, as it was thought to appeal more to the public if readers believed the story was based on true events in a person’s life. The novel has an episodic quality to it and is not structured linearly, though there is an overarching plot of Roxana’s moral deterioration.

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Fanny Hill by John Cleland (1748)

Fanny Hill, sometimes known as Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, is a novel by John Cleland that follows the life of the former sex worker Frances “Fanny” Hill. The novel was first published in London in 1748 and is considered one of the first erotic novels. It relies heavily on the use of euphemisms.

• Fanny Hill on SuperSummary

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane (1893)

Stephen Crane’s 1893 novella Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, depicts Maggie Johnson’s childhood in the poverty-stricken neighborhood of the Bowery, New York, and her adult slide into poverty and prostitution.