Roxana (1724), Defoe's last and darkest novel, is the autobiography of a woman who has traded her virtue, at first for survival, and then for fame and fortune. Its narrator tells the story of her own `wicked' life as the mistress of rich and powerful men. The novel's drama lies not in the heroine's `vast variety of fortunes', but in her attempts to understand the sometimes bitter lessons of her life as a `Fortunate Mistress'. Defoe's achievement was to invent, in `Roxana', a gripping story-teller as well as a gripping story.

This edition uses the rare first edition text.

Daniel Defoe

John Mullan is Lecturer in English at University College, London.

`Roxana is possible Defoe's most fascinating story-teller and this, one of his most intriguing stories.' The Daily Telegraph