Roxana (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Daniel Defoe
- First Published: 1724
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Picaresque
- Time of Work: Eighteenth century
- Setting: England and Europe
- Genres: Long fiction, Picaresque fiction
- Subjects: Values, Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Europe or Europeans, Middle classes, Marriage, England or English people, Eighteenth century, Women, Moral conditions, Ethics, Servants, Economic conditions
- Locales: Paris, France, London, England, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Characters Discussed
Roxana, a woman left penniless by her husband at the age of twenty-two. To support herself and her children, she becomes her landlord’s mistress and bears him a child. After his death, she becomes the mistress of a prince, out of vanity rather than need. She bears the prince a child during the eight years of their alliance. She then takes other lovers, receiving riches from them, until she is fifty years old. She finally leaves her role as a courtesan to marry and become a respectable wife.
Mr. ———, Roxana’s landlord and first lover. He...
[The entire page is 532 words long]
