"Memoirs of Fanny Hill" by John Cleland is an erotic novel first published in 1748-1749. Written while Cleland was imprisoned for debt in London, it is considered the first original English prose pornography to use the novel form. The work became one of history's most prosecuted and banned books, sparking landmark obscenity trials in both Britain and America that continued into the 1960s. Notable for its elaborate euphemisms and literary devices, the novel avoids explicit terminology while depicting sexual content through creative language.