Roxana, or the Fortunate Mistress

After her French Protestant family settles in England, the woman later called Roxana marries an incompetent brewer who abandons her with five children and no means of support. With her maid Amy as confidante and accomplice, she becomes the mistress of her landlord and then of a French prince, converting sexual dependence into money, jewels and increasing control over her own affairs as she moves between London, Paris and the Netherlands.

Roxana’s wealth allows her to reject marriage, adopt new identities and enter fashionable society, where her Turkish dress and extravagant entertainments make her notorious. Yet the return of a daughter she abandoned threatens the respectability she has constructed, and Amy’s attempts to silence the young woman darken the final movement of the novel. Defoe presents financial independence as both a defence against patriarchal vulnerability and a source of secrecy, isolation and moral compromise.