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Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress by Daniel Defoe is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress about?

Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (full title: 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 King Charles II) is a 1724 novel by Daniel Defoe. The novel concerns the story of an unnamed "fallen woman", the second time Defoe created such a character (the first was a similar female character in Moll Flanders). In Roxana, a woman who takes on various pseudonyms, including "Roxana" (after Roxana, wife of Alexander the Great), describes her fall from wealth thanks to abandonment by a "fool" of a husband, and movement into prostitution upon his abandonment. Roxana moves up and down through the social spectrum several times, by contracting an ersatz marriage to a jeweler, secretly courting a prince, being offered marriage by a Dutch merchant, and is finally able to afford her own freedom by accumulating wealth from these men. The novel examines the possibility of eighteenth century women owning their own estate despite a patriarchal society, as with Roxanna's celebrated claim that "the Marriage Contract i

Author

Daniel Defoe

Publisher

Anncona Media AB

Published

1724

Language

EN

Rating

3.43 / 5 (150 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14