Roxana, the fortunate mistress, or, A history of the life and vast variety of fortunes of Mademoiselle de Beleau : afterwards called the Countess de Wintselsheim in Germany : being the person known by the name of the Lady Roxana in the time of Charles II / [print]
Daniel Defoe ; edited with an introduction and notes by John Mullan.
- Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, (c)2008.
- xxxv, 356 pages : illustrations, map ; 20 cm.
"This edition uses the rare first edition text" --
Includes bibliographical references.
Introduction -- Note on the text -- Select bibliography -- A chronology of Daniel Defoe -- Map of London -- Frontispiece -- Facsimile title-page -- Roxana -- Appendix: The textual history of Roxana -- Explanatory notes.
"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. 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." --