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

This article examines the portrayal of sex workers and the interplay of sensibility, feminine virtue, and sexual honour in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s *Julie* (1761) and Isabelle de Charrière’s novella *Caliste* (1787). Rousseau’s character Laure, a former courtesan, is excluded from the virtuous utopia of Clarens despite her personal virtue, reflecting his philosophy of *la morale sensitive*—a theory linking environment, sensation, and morality that justifies social exclusion based on reputation and public opinion. In contrast, Charrière’s Caliste, also a reformed sex worker, actively cultivates a virtuous domestic environment and challenges Rousseau’s rigid exclusion by engaging with the complexities of urban life, public opinion, and the realities of sex work, including the risk of venereal disease. While both narratives end tragically, Charrière’s work critiques Rousseau’s utopian idealism and suggests a more nuanced, socially engaged understanding of virtue and hygiene that includes solidarity with other women in precarious conditions.