BooksRoxana
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.
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.
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Find Roxana Daniel Defoe in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find Roxana Daniel Defoe in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
4 books in catalog
The emergence of the English novel was heavily shaped by realistic prose narratives designed to read like true memoirs, travel accounts, and criminal histories. Daniel Defoe stood among the earliest British authors to popularize this narrative form, transitioning late in life from topical pamphleteering to long-form fiction. His novel Robinson Crusoe became one of the most widely read works in English literature, establishing conventions of realism and first-person perspective that redefined storytelling in the Augustan Age.
Born Daniel Foe in London around 1660 to a Dissenter family—his father James Foe was a butcher and tallow chandler—he later added the prefix 'De' to sound more gentlemanly. Educated at the Reverend Charles Morton's academy at Newington Green, he initially considered entering the ministry before going into business as a merchant in 1683. Over his life, Defoe engaged in various commercial enterprises, though several failed and resulted in severe financial distress, bankruptcy, and aggressive creditors. His active involvement in political writing and satirical pamphleteering led to his imprisonment for slander, but his political acumen later made him a valuable government agent and spy, writing intelligence reports and political tracts for successive Whig and Tory administrations.
Defoe was an extraordinarily prolific writer who produced more than 500 books, pamphlets, journal articles, and poems across his lifetime. In addition to his fiction, he served as a pioneer of economic journalism, writing extensively on commerce, trade, social issues, and governance. Following a serious illness and political changes around 1714–1715, he produced widely read didactic works like The Family Instructor (1715) before turning to extended fiction in his late fifties. By the time he published the first volume of Robinson Crusoe in 1719, he brought decades of observation, political analysis, and journalistic technique to his storytelling.
Defoe's literary style is marked by a rigorous commitment to circumstantial realism, employing meticulous logistical detail, practical accounting, and persuasive first-person narration. Across various subjects—including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural—his narratives often depict resourceful individuals navigating isolation, moral conflicts, economic survival, and social mobility. By presenting fictional characters with authentic-sounding documentation, diary entries, and autobiographical reflection, Defoe created an immersive sense of verisimilitude that engaged readers accustomed to journalistic reports and spiritual autobiographies.
4 books in catalog
The emergence of the English novel was heavily shaped by realistic prose narratives designed to read like true memoirs, travel accounts, and criminal histories. Daniel Defoe stood among the earliest British authors to popularize this narrative form, transitioning late in life from topical pamphleteering to long-form fiction. His novel Robinson Crusoe became one of the most widely read works in English literature, establishing conventions of realism and first-person perspective that redefined storytelling in the Augustan Age.
Born Daniel Foe in London around 1660 to a Dissenter family—his father James Foe was a butcher and tallow chandler—he later added the prefix 'De' to sound more gentlemanly. Educated at the Reverend Charles Morton's academy at Newington Green, he initially considered entering the ministry before going into business as a merchant in 1683. Over his life, Defoe engaged in various commercial enterprises, though several failed and resulted in severe financial distress, bankruptcy, and aggressive creditors. His active involvement in political writing and satirical pamphleteering led to his imprisonment for slander, but his political acumen later made him a valuable government agent and spy, writing intelligence reports and political tracts for successive Whig and Tory administrations.
Defoe was an extraordinarily prolific writer who produced more than 500 books, pamphlets, journal articles, and poems across his lifetime. In addition to his fiction, he served as a pioneer of economic journalism, writing extensively on commerce, trade, social issues, and governance. Following a serious illness and political changes around 1714–1715, he produced widely read didactic works like The Family Instructor (1715) before turning to extended fiction in his late fifties. By the time he published the first volume of Robinson Crusoe in 1719, he brought decades of observation, political analysis, and journalistic technique to his storytelling.
Defoe's literary style is marked by a rigorous commitment to circumstantial realism, employing meticulous logistical detail, practical accounting, and persuasive first-person narration. Across various subjects—including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural—his narratives often depict resourceful individuals navigating isolation, moral conflicts, economic survival, and social mobility. By presenting fictional characters with authentic-sounding documentation, diary entries, and autobiographical reflection, Defoe created an immersive sense of verisimilitude that engaged readers accustomed to journalistic reports and spiritual autobiographies.
