Sex Work, Sensibility, and Virtue: Isabelle de Charrière’s Response to Rousseau

Abstract

In Julie (1761), Jean-Jacques Rousseau changed courtesan Laure’s projected happy matrimonial ending and cut most of her story, consigning her to a convent and to the narrative’s margins. Why was the former sex worker judged, despite her virtue and sensibility, an element inassimilable to the virtuous environment of Clarens? Conversely, Isabelle de Charrière, a dedicated reader of Rousseau, makes courtesan Caliste the main character of a novella. Caliste, too, is denied a happy ending, yet repeatedly and convincingly she makes the case that she is not only virtuous but also (like Julie) able to craft an environment conducive to virtue—against those who argue that lost sexual honour renders a woman toxic. Rousseau’s reworked depiction of Laure, this article argues, is best understood with reference to his philosophy of sensation, hygiene, and ethics: la morale sensitive. Although Charrière never names this philosophy, her Caliste develops and challenges it.