The Story Archive

Roxana

Daniel Defoe · 1724 CE · Novel · English · Enlightenment

Left with five children by a brewer who simply walks out, a woman declines to starve respectably and takes instead a succession of protectors across Paris, Rotterdam and London, dancing in a Turkish dress before a company that includes the king. Her maid Amy transacts the parts of the business she will not name herself, and the fortune grows long past any use for it. She calls herself a whore and a she-devil in one breath and itemises the settlements in the next, which makes Defoe's last novel the darkest thing he wrote.

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Attributes

Genre
PsychologicalCrime / Noir
Theme
Wealth & GreedGuilt & ConscienceIdentity & SelfClass & InequalityMotherhood
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Fallen WomanFemme Fatale
Plot structure
ConfessionRise and FallEpisodic
Symbol / motif
The GarmentGold / TreasureThe MaskThe Mirror
Conflict
vs Selfvs Societyvs Person
Mode / tone
RealistIronicGothic
Culture / tradition
English

Closest analogues