1724
Daniel Defoe
Well, I am back from my total calamity of a trip to France (we are talking lost luggage, rude French people, liitle sleep, and around 300 embarrassing moments). There will be no more interruptions in my posts from now on so hopefully I will not be in my eighties when I finish this list.
Roxana is very similar (a little too similar for my liking) to Moll Flanders. Roxana goes through her life being wicked and benefits from it. Of course, like in Moll Flanders, Roxana would not have been as horrible of a woman now as she was back then. Sure, making your maid sleep with your lover and watching is a bit awful. She also abandons a lot of her children. But some of her other "crimes" were having sex without being married and refusing to marry a man because she didn't want him to take her money. I don't blame her for a lot of her life. Woman could not exactly support themselves back then and Roxana knew she had what men, ahem, want and made use of it.
I enjoyed this novel more than Moll Flanders, but again I do not think that an author should have two novels that have basically the same plot. It came across as a little lazy. So we say goodbye to Defoe. Nice finish.
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
Roxana was avant le lettre. That means that she was a feminist before there was a word for feminists.
The only movie version of this book is some dramatic dance. I think I will pass.
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