‘I set out into the world… and I resolved to be mistress of myself.’

Abandoned and destitute, Roxana harnesses her faculties to change her fortunes. With her wits, her looks and her loyal maid Amy, she flouts all the rules, transforming herself from penniless widow to celebrated courtesan, dressed in finery and cavorting with princes. Yet, brazen and bejewelled, she becomes more and more trapped by deceit.

In keeping with her self-determination, Defoe’s Roxana tells her own story. Recounting the roller-coaster years of her sexual deviance and ‘wicked’ behaviour, she intends her tale to serve as a cautionary one to others. Being an adventuress in 18th-century England is not plain sailing, and Roxana is unforgiving in her retrospective analysis (‘If I had not been one of the foolishest as well as wickedest creatures upon earth, I could never have acted thus.’) Defoe’s final novel, published in 1724, Roxana is honoured here by the voice of Stephanie Racine, who elicits with ease all its provocation and entertainment.