Whores in literature

I'm watching Les Miserables on Masterpiece Theater on PBS these days and Sunday's episode was about Fantine's descent into selling her body to support herself and her daughter. I've been fascinated by whore's since puberty and literature has provided most of my background knowledge of the world's oldest profession. But I was particularly struck by Victor Hugo's rather sympathetic portrayal of Fantine's decision to sell her body way back in 1862. I'm rather shocked that the novel was so enlightened for its time. We can only hope that society continues to evolve, however slowly.