A bore compared to Moll Flanders

A bore compared to Moll Flanders. I got to the end with relief....and his last book.

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This was wonderful!

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.

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4 people found this helpful

Fabulous gripping adaptation

Read Roxana at university many years ago and thought I’d give this a try. I’ve come away blown away by how modern so many of Defoes ideas still are about issues like capital, gender and class.

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.

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