Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (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. The novel's drama lies not in the heroine'svast 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, inRoxana', a gripping story-teller as well as a gripping story. This new edition features a new introduction, detailed notes, textual history, and map of contemporary London.