That modern novels set in, say, Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian London perhaps consider *not* putting the female characters into either the “lady” or the “whore” categories, as if there were no other options? And perhaps not have the male protagonists visit brothels as a character-delineation or plot device, to show how very lonely and alienated and dissolute and ripe for redemption they are?
Because you know what really endears a character to me and makes me want to cheer him on and hope he gets the “good” girl in the end? His sexual exploitation of women in desperate straits.
And is it a coincidence that this usually happens in novels written by men? I think not.
Don’t forget governess, which, evidently was the only other possible life path for women for about 200 years. Yup. There weren’t any seamstresses, factory workers, bakers, etc etc ad nauseum./grump
There are plenty of novels just like this written by women too. Granted, they’re more likely to be romance novels, but the “reformed rake” is a pretty standard trope.