Novels about Prostitutes, Prostitution

I'm not out to offend anyone here, but this topic came up in a conversation recently and I thought I'd solicit the help of this group to compile a list of novels where the main character, or one of the main characters, is a prostitute. If you could also mention a few additional details such as setting or time period that would also be helpful.

The first four books that come to my mind are:

Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi is set in 1970s Egypt, but tells the back story of a woman on death row for killing her pimp.

The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman is set in England during the cholera epidemic of the 1830s.

The Madame by Julianna Baggott, a novel based on the life of Baggott's West Virginian great-grandmother in the early part of the 20th century.

The Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller. The story of a mother and daughter. The mother, who is Korean, was conscripted into prostitution during WWII to 'service' the Japanese troops.

Others?

The Crimson Petal and the White, Victorian London.

The Singing Fire, girl tricked (and eventually forced) into prostitution after arriving in London from a Polish village.

Cannot think of others right now.

Runaway: a Diary of a Street Kid by Evelyn Lau is technically a memoir, but it reads like a novel (and it felt rather fictionalized to me). Set in Vancouver, 1970s.

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, Victorian England. Prostitution isn't a big part of the novel, but when Nancy is dropped by Kitty, she spends some time on the streets before being taken in by that lady (can't remember her name) who keeps her as a "paid woman."

Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue, 18th century London, if I remember correctly. Young girl becomes a prostitue after being thrown out by her parents when she becomes pregnant. Terrific book.

What about Fanny Hill? It is probably the most famous in the genre, or not?

In the fantasy genre there are a variety, probably most famously of late the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey (Kushiel's Dart, etc.). Call-girl style rather than street-walker style. One of China Mieville's books recently was about prostitutes, wasn't it?

In SF The Rainbow Cadenza by J. Neil Schuman (I know, I know) has a kind of interesting take on mandatory sex work for women. Not a major portion of the novel quantity wise, but significant motivation-wise.

You might also see the feministSF wiki for some titles: http://wiki.feministsf.net/index.php?title=Non-female_sex_workers_in_SF and http://wiki.feministsf.net/index.php?title=Female_sex_workers_in_SF . Woefully incomplete but a few others.

Biographical fiction: The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America by Michelle Tea has, if I recall correctly, a good bit about her sex work.

Observations Scotland in 1860s. This is a novel about a prostitute who is running away from her Madame mother. She gets a job as servant because she can write. Her mistress likes to have servants who can keep journals of their daily activities.

I loved this book.

How about Breakfast at Tiffany's? Holly Golightly doesn't sell her body for money, but she does sell her presence for $50 tips for the powder room. (Must admit, I'm going off my memory of the movie more than the book at the moment! Must be time for a re-read.)

I did take out of the library (and returned unread) Lullabies for Little Criminals the other week. I believe that was about prostitution, to a certain extent.

Two Latin American titles:

Our Lady of the Night by Mayra Santos-Febres (Puerto Rico), set early to mid-20th century and tells the story of PR's most infamous madam.

No One will See Me Cry by Cristina Rivera Garza (Mexico). I'm not sure when this is set but it involves a prostitute who is now in an insane asylum.

Hmmm, and while I wouldn't necessarily add Geishas to this list, I might add Courtesans, so I'd add Gigi by Colette, set turn-of-the-20th century, I think, in Paris.

Also, In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant set in 16th century Venice.

#10 I actually think Holly Golightly did sell her body for money, but in a more ongoing semi-kept woman kind of way. Might not have been as clear in the movie as in the book, and it may have been implicit rather than explicit.

#12 - Thanks, Rebecca. I always wondered about that (only having seen the book and never having read the book). I had kind of concluded that it was hidden in the story in an attempt to affirm early 1960s mainstream morality.

Nana by Emile Zola is the story of a courtesan of late 19th century France.
In Swann's Way by Marcel Proust, Swann's obsessive love Odette is also a courtesan.

I loved Observations too - please give it a try. I feel that this book deserves to be better known for its fantastic characters and insights into female minds.

15- I especially loved the mistress. Her character "haunted" me long after I put the book down, which is always telling of excellent craftmanship.

me too- she was a very compelling and tragic character

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Maggie, A girl of the streets by Stephen Crane
Roxana by Daniel Defoe
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

And of course, a play, but one of the most pointed explorations of prostitution in Victorian England -- Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw.

Dream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn is set in 1970's Manilla. Hagedorn uses film & prostitution to explore the colonial legacy and cultural identity in The Philippines.

18>> As far as plays, there's also Mikhail Bulgakov's comic satire Madame Zoyka (sometimes translated as Madame Zoyka's Apartment or some similar title). It's probably most readily available in the Methuen paperback collection Bulgakov: Six Plays.

Prostitution is also a theme in some of Elizabeth Gaskell's work, such as the story Lizzie Leigh and her first novel, Mary Barton.

Oh, that reminds me of Ruth, which is also by Gaskell. I haven't read it, but I understand it's about prostitution.

21>> Ruth is TBR for me, and I deliberately avoided mentioning it because, although Ruth is a "fallen woman," I'm not sure that she ever became a prostitute. (Incidentally, the prostitute in Mary Barton is one of the minor characters.)

But hey, has anyone yet mentioned Crime and Punishment's Sonya?

Right, isn't it about her struggle NOT to become a prostitute? Like I said, I haven't read it yet. This is also an issue in The French Lieutenant's Woman, where the main male character also visits prostitutes.

This may be more a case of "courtesans" than "prostitutes" but Maia by Richard Adams bears mentioning. It's a weird book with some leaning toward sado-masochistic fetishism, and I don't at all recommend it (having tried on several occasions to get through it, but always unsuccessfully). Still, it bears mentioning for the sake of its author. Maia is set in the same universe as Shardik, which I personally think is Adams' greatest novel (even better than Watership Down), but Maia just drags on and on and just never seems to get to a point.

Let the Great World Spin has a couple of prostitutes who are integral to the story. 1970s New York City.

And of course, Cathy in East of Eden by Steinbeck. Salinas Valley, early 20th century.

Diary of an unlikely call girl by Belle de Jour.

Mmm - some of the short stories by Colette? Cheri and The Last of Cheri

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe and Memoirs of Fanny Hill by John Cleland.

I think Memoirs of a Geisha could be added to the list (although there is some debate as to whether a geisha is really a prostitute, but the main character's virginity gets sold to the highest bidder).

The Blue Notebook is about child prostitutes in modern India.

The Dutch Courtesan, a seventeenth-century play by Thomas Middleton, is about a vengeful prostitute.

In Shakespeare's Pericles, the main female character, Marina, is sold to a brothel--but she ends up reforming everyone!

The Linnet Bird by Linda Holeman. Eleven-year old is forced into prostitution in 19th century England; emigrates to India in hopes of bettering herself.

The Adventures of Moll Flanders, of course! A seventeenth-century classic by Daniel Defoe.

The Aviary Gate, if you want to count harem dwellers as prostitutes.

Q & A (a.k.a. Slumdog Millionaire) by Vikas Swarup. Modern day India; the girl the main character falls in love with is a prostitute.

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton

All This Belongs to Me, by Czech author Petra Hůlová, is about a family in current-day Mongolia, two of whom become prostitutes. (Though I now realise that I'm coming to the list-making rather late, having just seen the first message's time stamp!)

>31 frithuswith: interesting. I bought that book after reading Akeela's review of it in Belletrista....

Song of the Exile by Kiana Davenport. A haunting and horrific tale of comfort women in WWII.

I just thought of another one: The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant. A good portion of the novel centers around a whorehouse, the madam, her two working girls and the grandson. The more I think about this book the more I like it.

There's an interesting article I came across last fall that you might be interested in (assuming you can get hold of it):

Cassiday, Julie A., and Leyla Rouhi. “From Nevskii Prospekt to Zoia’s Apartment: Trials of the Russian Procuress,” 58 RUSSIAN REV. no. 3, 413-31 (July 1999)

What happened was, I took a playwriting course at my local community college. I'm wa-a-a-y beyond the college days, but I had a couple dramatic ideas and needed the discipline of taking a course to force myself to get something on paper. Anyway, there was an assignment of analyzing a play of your own choice along with some minimal amount of research, and I used Bulgakov's Madame Zoyka (variously translated also as Zoia's Apartment) since I know Bulgakov fairly well and my interest was in the creative writing aspect of the course, not in doing extensive dramatic reading and criticism.

Anyway, this particular Bulgakov play, which I've already mentioned @20, involves a brothel, and the Cassidy-Rouhi article was something I came up with through on-line research. I found it through EBSCO, but it may be available on JSTOR or other services as well, and it's a pretty decent analysis of the prostitution theme in both pre-Revolutionary and early Bolshevik Russia. I currently don't have access to an EBSCO or other on-line research account, but anyone who has EBSCO access can get hold of this.

Another novel in which prostitutes play a part:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez Memoria de mis putas tristes Written from a very male, macho point of view. It's a story about a man who celebrates his 90th birthday. He calls a madam at a club he used to visit, to ask if she can deliver him a young virgin before nightfall.

# 36 OMG, I hope she doesn't.

Sorry to be late to the Prostitution thread! Pat Barker's Blow Your House Down is about prostitutes working in an industrial town in Northern England.

Rumer Godden's "Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy," about former prostitutes turned nuns.

The Girl Who Played With Fire is partly about an investigation into human trafficking in Sweden. It's a good view into prostitution from that angle.

I don't believe Sold by Patricia Mccormick has been mentioned. It's a book in verse for Young Adults.

It's about a young Nepalese girl who is sold by her stepfather into prostitution in India. Based on either a true story or at least a true situation that is still happening. Haunting.

I bought Black Sisters Street recently - I think some of it might have been on the radio, as I heard something which impressed me, a novel about African women as sex workers in the Netherlands.

I can now highly recommend Lullabies for Little Criminals, by Heather O'Neill. Prostitution is a major presence in the second half of the novel. It is set in late 1980s Montreal.

I'm about half way through The Pillars of the Earth and there's a good scene of attempted prostitution recruitment and also a little bit about treatment in a brothel

This might be a little bit of a stretch, but Les Miserables because of Fontaine. I just love that book!