Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress - Couverture souple

Defoe, Daniel

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1518699839 ISBN 13 : 9781518699832

Editeur : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Roxana (1724), Defoe's last and darkest novel, is the ‘autobiography’ of a courtesan who has traded her virtue, at first for survival, and later 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. Equipped with many seductive skills, she is herself in turn 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. Roxana becomes pregnant many times due to her sexual exploits, and it is one of her children, Susan, who comes back to expose her, years later, helping to precipitate her flight abroad, subsequent loss of wealth, and repentance. Roxana's fame 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 compelling storyteller as well as a compelling story.

Biographie de l'auteur :

Daniel Defoe (1660–1731), born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer, and spy, most famous for his novels about Robinson Crusoe and novels Moll Flanders and Colonel Jack. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and with others such as Samuel Richardson, and thus is among the founders of the English novel. He was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of economic journalism.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Date d'édition: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1518699839
• ISBN 13: 9781518699832
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 254