After the renewals from the library, I finally managed to make it through this classic novel by Daniel Defore. Roxana, or the Fortunate Mistress is about a woman who takes on different names and turns to prostitution after her husband abandons her. There is no way to truly know her identity and over the years no on really knows who “Roxana” is and what she looks like.

Throughout her many relationships, Roxana bears many children, who never know who their real mother is. She moves from being rich to being poor many times, making it nearly impossible to settle down and have a normal life, and when she finally makes a friend and decides to change it’s hard to tell whether or not she really means it.

This is not the first time Defoe has created such a character and I imagine it was quite an interesting one to write at the time.