Roxana, or the Fortunate Mistress

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature

Roxana, or the Fortunate Mistress, a novel by Defoe, published 1724.

This purports to be the autobiography of Mlle Beleau, the beautiful daughter of French Protestant refugees, brought up in England and married to a London brewer, who, having squandered his property, deserts her and her five children. She enters upon a career of prosperous wickedness, passing from one protector to another in England, France, and Holland, amassing much wealth, and receiving the name Roxana by accident, in consequence of a dance that she performs.

Find more facts and information related to the .
© The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003.

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

	POST PUZZLER: 50 for fun; Phil Brown's trivia quiz.(Features) ; ...seventh honorary citizen of the US - but who were the only two people to be so honoured while still alive? 3 Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress was the last novel by which writer? 4 Which British cyclist has just taken three gold medals as Britain topped the medal... Read more
	Defoe's Roxana: the making and unmaking of a heroine.(Daniel Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Year and Roxana") ; ...by them. Roxana's name is hidden also, but differently: the name 'Roxana' which is shouted out at the height of her triumph is later...realizes with a slight jolt that this is the first time the name 'Roxana' has found utterance in the novel (we are about half-way through... Read more
	A CONFESSION ; ...books were novels. They included "Cesar Birotteau" by Honore de Balzac (the 1828 Paris building boom); "Roxana: or, The Fortunate Mistress" by Daniel Defoe (the financial adventures of an obliging woman in the early 18th century); "Little Dorrit" (swindling... Read more
	LIBERTY FINDS HER SANCTUARY; Top British model Liberty Ross had a colourful, 'chaotic' childhood. Now with a husband, two young children of her own and a contract as the face of a new skincare range, she tells Josephine Fairley why she is passionate about motherhood - and how she is loving her new life in 'laidback' Los Angeles. ; ...we can see her. She's even got the perfect mummy name: Bunty!' (Bunty prefers not to use her more-glamorous-sounding real name, Roxana.) Liberty may not be quite up there with Kate, Claudia and Elle (yet), but she has now reached a stage in modelling where... Read more
	Business Book Of The Week: Ten lessons in how to go from boom to bust ; ...Crusoe, and bankers enjoy for his novels where financial detail is interspersed among lurid characters such as Roxana, the Fortunate Mistress and Moll Flanders. Defoe was also a journalist with strong interests in his debts, in morality and in Exchange Alley... Read more

For more facts and information, see all related premium articles