Roxana
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Roxana
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Narrated by:
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Juanita McMahon
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By:
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Daniel Defoe
About this listen
Beautiful, proud Roxana is terrified of being poor. When her husband leaves her penniless with five children, she must choose between being a virtuous beggar or a rich whore.
Embarking on a career as a courtesan and kept woman, Roxana passes from man to man in order to maintain her lavish, glamorous lifestyle. But this life comes at a cost; she is torn between sinful prosperity and the respectability she craves.
Public Domain (P)2013 W F Howes LtdListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
A bore compared to Moll Flanders
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What did you like most about Roxana?
I'm surprised at the negative reviews for this classic. I thoroughly enjoyed it and though Juanita McMahon's delivery was excellent - she brought the characters to life with her masterful delivery.Published in 1724, and in the first-person as a memoir, “Roxana” describes her youth, marriage to a whom man she often refers to as “a fool” and the dire straits she found herself in following her abandonment by this man (the brewer).
I would, however, recommend potential readers who listen to this audiobook to also seek the full 1745 edition – as this gives a fuller ending (a common cause for complaint is the abruptness of the ending in the original and in the abridged versions).
I have to say, by the end of the story I was sad to be parted from Roxana's world. I had grown so attached; it surprised me!
Which character – as performed by Juanita McMahon – was your favourite?
She was excellent with Roxana and the two male characters who stood out the most because of her great delivery were the Prince in France and the Dutch merchant.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
When she reunites with the Dutch merchant.This was wonderful!
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I know Marxist critics have had a field day with Robinson Crusoe- but I’m still perplexed by how Roxana is so overlooked as a novel. Gender critical theory weighs so heavily on relations between the women in the novel as well as the men. The only person who come close to seeing through her is the Jewish gold merchant.
It’s so desperately dark (though parts of it read like a Carry On film) that perhaps it’s just too tough to tackle as a tv adaption or film. Juanita has done a brilliant job bringing it to life here.
No doubt that in todays works of Wall Street banks, high class escort agencies, global hot money markets and toothless law enforcers, Defoe would feel right at home. Roxana is still out there now- on a beach in the south of France or shopping on Fifth Avenue.
Fabulous gripping adaptation
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