Prostitution and Eighteenth-Century Culture: Sex, Commerce and Morality (The Body, Gender and Culture)

Prostitutes and prostitution were notoriously visible in eighteenth-century culture. Commonly understood as an indication of the moral temperature of society, the period saw profound changes in the way prostitution was represented in literary and visual culture. This collection of essays focuses on the variety of ways in which those involved in the sex trade - from courtesans and kept women to actresses and streetwalkers - were represented in the literary and popular culture of the time, across different art forms and highlighting contradictory interpretations.