SOLVED. Set in 19th Century (not sure) girl who started off as prostitute and slowly moves her way up the social ladder. Travels to India and marries homosexual child molester. (Graphic) [s]

[Xholicx]

This should be easy, because I remember quite a lot about the book, but Google has failed me. I must warn you beforehand that this is not a book meant for children or even young adults, and my description will be a little graphic.

OK. So this story first takes place in what I assume is 19th Century England. It's about a girl from the slums of a certain city (Liverpool?) who's mother died when she was very young. Her (step?)father then begins selling her as a prostitute. The very first time she had a "client", she cried and refused, which caused her father to knock her out. When she woke up again, her client was already on top of her and her father was just sitting there watching. She then runs away from home and joins a brothel. She continues as a prostitute, but is now making money for herself. Somewhere during this time, she accidentally gets pregnant and is forced to have an abortion. I remember a particularly graphic scene about an upper class man in a carriage trying to get her to give him oral sex, and she sort of refuses, and he hits her.

Later on, she moves to India and meets a seemingly charming man, who turns out to be a homosexual child molester. They make an agreement to marry, so she can move up the social ladder, while he can hide the fact that he's... well... a homosexual (which was something to hide back then) and a child molester.

Then the book begins talking about her married life in India. Her best friend commits suicide by running her and her horse off a cliff, and sometime later, she has a passionate affair in the woods with this local Indian man and gets pregnant. She tricks her husband into having sex with her with some sort of Indian medicine and gives birth to her half-caste baby. Her husband later dies of illness, and it's sort of a happily ever after.

I remember there was a birdcage against a dark blue background on the cover of the version I read.

[Moloch]

This books sounds really interesting, I hope someone can recognize it because I'd like to read it! :-)
Meanwhile, have you checked Listopia? Here's some lists that could help:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/27...
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/41...
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/17...
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/43...
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/35...

[Anna]

The cover on the editions listed on Goodreads doesn't seem to match, but your description sounds similar to the description of The Linnet Bird: A Novel by Linda Holeman.

A UK edition did have a dark blue cover.

[Xholicx]

BINGO! Thank you very much!