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Roxana

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Roxana
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Daniel Defoe
Edited by David Blewett
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:416
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenreLiterary studies - c 1500 to c 1800
Literary studies - fiction, novelists and prose writers
Classic fiction (pre c 1945)
ISBN/Barcode 9780140431490
ClassificationsDewey:823.5
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publication Date 29 April 1982
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The only one of Defoe's novels that does not end with the triumph of its protagonist, Roxana is nevertheless a triumphant work of art. Beautiful, proud Roxana is terrified of being poor. When her foolish husband leaves her penniless with five children, she must choose between being a virtuous beggar or a rich whore. Embarking on a career as a courtesan and kept woman, the glamour of her new existence soon becomes too enticing and Roxana passes from man to man in order to maintain her lavish society parties, luxurious clothes and amassed wealth. But this life comes at a cost, and she is fatally torn between the sinful prosperity she has become used to and the respectability she craves. A vivid satire on a dissolute society, Roxana (1724) is a devastating and psychologically acute evocation of the ways in which vanity and ambition can corrupt the human soul.

Author Biography

A prolific and versatile writer, Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) produced some 500 books on a wide variety of topics, including politics, geography, crime, religion, economics, marriage, psychology and superstition. He delighted in role-playing and disguise, a skill he used to great effect as a secret agent, and in his writing he often adopted a pseudonym or another personality for rhetorical impact. He turned to fiction relatively late in life and in 1719 published his great imaginative work, Robinson Crusoe. This was followed in 1722 by Moll Flanders and A Journal of the Plague Year, and in 1724 by his last novel, Roxana. Defoe had a great influence on the development of the English novel and many consider him to be the first true novelist.