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Prostitution was the focus of much of the earliest
erotic works. The very term "pornography" is derived
from the Greek pornographos meaning "the writing of
prostitutes", originally denoting descriptions of the
lives and manners of prostitutes and their customers in
Ancient Greece. According to Athenaeus in The
Deipnosophists these constituted a considerable genre,
with many lubricious treatises, stories and dramas on
the subject.
Accounts of prostitution have continued as a major part
of the genre of erotic literature.
In the 18th century directories of prostitutes and their
services, such as Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies
(1757–1795), provided both entertainment and
instruction.
In the 19th century the sensational journalism of W. T.
Stead's The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon (1885)
about the procuring of underage girls into the brothels
of Victorian London provided a stimulus for the erotic
imagination. Stead's account was widely translated and
the revelation of "padded rooms for the purpose of
stifling the cries of the tortured victims of lust and
brutality" and the symbolic figure of "The Minotaur of
London" confirmed European observers worst imaginings
about "Le Sadisme anglais" and inspired erotic writers
to write of similar scenes set in London or involving
sadistic English gentlemen. Such writers include
D'Annunzio in Il Piacere, Paul-Jean Toulet in Monsieur
de Paur (1898), Octave Mirbeau in Jardin des Supplices
(1899) and Jean Lorrain in Monsieur de Phocas
(1901).
A well known 21st century work in this genre is The
Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl(2005) by Belle
de Jour.
Erotic Literature - Erotic memoirs
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