Найти книгу: "Roxana, The Fortunate Mistress"

Daniel Defoe's last novel «Roxana» is perhaps his darkest. Using his «fallen woman» archetype established in his seminal work «Moll Flanders», Defoe tracks the mercurial life of an unnamed female protagonist who adopts the pseudonym Roxana. The story of her rise and fall is a captivating account of the destructive powers of greed and seduction. Roxana begins as a deserted wife with five children. She chooses a life of prostitution for sustenance, and discovers opportunity to climb the social and economic ranks. Quickly Roxana finds herself deeply immersed in a life of excess and vice. She swings from powerful suitor to suitor, acquiring fortunes from each. Her sexual exploits transform her into a self-empowered economically independent social climber. Yet this liberated life comes with its prices. Defoe's «Roxana» is a bold and powerful narrative—one that begs for an inquiry into the role of sex and power in a capitalistic society. An engrossing novel, «Roxana» remains a classic of English letters and one of Defoe's finest.

France, XVII century. Young Arabella, not knowing that such wealth and luxury, gets an invitation to the ball. Drugged to flatter the monarch, an innocent girl not notice that he is in the Royal bed. But the fee for the title mistress of the king is too high. The girl will have to visit the intoxicating harem of the East, the flight to sit down on the bed of a hated Sultan, to appear before himself with the Sacred court. And this is only the beginning of a difficult road leading to true love.