List of Prostitutes and Courtesans - in Fiction and Literature

In Fiction and Literature

  • Bella Cohen, Florry, & Zoe, Ulysses by James Joyce
  • Belle, Ah, Wilderness! by Eugene O'Neill
  • Belle Watling, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  • Candy, in Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction by Luke Davies
  • Candy, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
  • Chandramukhi, Devdas
  • Fanny Hill, Fanny Hill, by John Cleland
  • Fantine, Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
  • Lady Sally, a.k.a. Callahan's Lady
  • Marguerite Gautier, from Alexandre Dumas, fils' work La Dame aux camélias, inspired by real life Marie Duplessis, 19th century courtesan.
  • Inara Serra, Firefly by Joss Whedon
  • Juliette, in the Marquis de Sade's Juliette
  • Lozana, Portrait of Lozana by Francisco Delicado
  • Moll Flanders, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
  • Molly Malone, Irish urban legend
  • Sonya Marmeladova, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Nana, Nana, by Emile Zola
  • Nancy, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
  • Tra La La, Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby
  • Mrs. Rosie Palm, brothel owner and president of the Guild of "Seamstresses" in various Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett
  • Phedre no Delauny of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel novels.
  • Pie 'Oh' Pah, from Imajica by Clive Barker
  • Romulus, central character in The Romanian: Story of an Obsession by Bruce Benderson
  • Elisabeth Rouset, Boule de Suif by Guy de Maupassant
  • Satine, in Moulin Rouge! by Baz Luhrmann, a story based on the Paris nightclub of the same name.
  • Séverine Serizy, in the 1928 novel Belle de Jour and the 1967 film based on it
  • Tristessa, Tristessa by Jack Kerouac
  • Talanta, La Talanta by Pietro Aretino
  • Vasantsenaa, a Nagarvadhu, or wealthy courtesan, in Śudraka's Sanskrit play, Mṛcchakatika.
  • Violetta, main character from the opera La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, is also inspired by Alexandre Dumas' La Dame aux camélias. "La Traviata" means "the reprobate".
  • Vivian Ward, central character in Pretty Woman
  • Suzie Wong, from The World of Suzie Wong
  • Yumi Komagata, Rurouni Kenshin, by Nobuhiro Watsuki
  • Zaza, Zaza by Pierre Berton and Charles Simon

- Odette, in Marcel Proust's Un amour de Swann

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