Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress

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Daniel Defoe John Mullan (Lecturer in English, Lecturer in English, University College, London)

Roxana

The Fortunate Mistress

Daniel Defoe, John Mullan (Lecturer in English, Lecturer in English, University College, London)

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English

Oxford University Press
10 July 2008

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800; Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers; Classic fiction (pre c 1945)

Series: Oxford World's Classics

Roxana (1724), Defoe's last and darkest novel, is the autobiography of a woman who has traded her virtue, at first for survival, and then for fame and fortune. Its narrator tells the story of her own `wicked' life as the mistress of rich and powerful men. A resourceful adventuress, she is also an unforgiving analyst of her own susceptibilities, who tells us of the price she pays for her successes. Endowed with many seductive skills, she is herself seduced: by money, by dreams of rank, and by the illusion that she can escape her own past. Unlike Defoe's other penitent anti-heroes, however, she fails to triumph over these weaknesses.

The novel's drama lies not only in the heroine's `vast variety of fortunes', but in her attempts to understand the sometimes bitter lessons of her life as a `Fortunate Mistress'. Defoe's achievement was to invent, in `Roxana', a gripping story-teller as well as a gripping story.

This edition uses the rare first edition text, with a new introduction, detailed notes, textual history, and a map.

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By: Daniel Defoe
Edited by: John Mullan (Lecturer in English Lecturer in English University College London)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 195mm, Width: 127mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 275g
ISBN: 9780199536740
ISBN 10: 0199536740
Series: Oxford World's Classics
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 10 July 2008
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active