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It
is possible to find a veritable cornucopia of different depictions
of prostitutes and courtesans from the nineteenth-century. The problem
lies within the fact that it is not always possible to tell where
the portrayal came from. Perhaps the person writing about prostitution
had a negative view on it and therefore would portray them with
a negative bias. The fact is that quite a lot of the gentlemen from
the eighteen-hundreds had mistresses or used prostitutes on a shockingly
regular basis. Some of these men knew a lot about the world of prostitution
and had a sympathetic view of the hard times that some women fell
upon. These men were sure to portray courtesans and others in a
much kinder light. Probably largely due to the fact that so many
men were in some type of arrangement with prostitutes of all different
classes, many of the portrayals are kind and sympathetic to the
plight of a woman who had no way to support herself lest she became
a woman of the night.
Highly
acclaimed French writers Victor Hugo, and Alexandre Dumas, as well
as the artist Toulouse-Lautrec, all were familiar with courtesans
and prostitutes. The following pages will explore the ways in which
these prominent and recognized men portrayed the women that they
cam into contact with seemingly quite regularly.
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