The Fortunate Mistress (Parts 1 and 2): or a History of the Life of Mademoiselle de Beleau Known by the Name of the Lady Roxana

In Short

Daniel Defoe’s The Fortunate Mistress, commonly known as Roxana, is a stark, gripping portrait of a woman’s desperate rise from penury to immense wealth through calculated amours across Europe. Abandoned by a foolish husband with five small children to support, the heroine uses her wits, beauty, and total pragmatic detachment to secure financial independence as the mistress of a jeweler, a prince, and a merchant. Yet her accumulated riches cannot buy peace of mind. As her past continuously threatens to catch up with her—most terrifyingly in the form of a daughter she abandoned—the novel explores the heavy moral toll of self-preservation. It has endured as a groundbreaking piece of realistic fiction that refuses to offer easy, pious answers to the harsh economic realities of its era.

The Story

The narrative begins with a desperate crisis: abandoned by her spendthrift husband, a brewer who flees his debts, the heroine is left in London with five young children and not a single shilling to buy them food. In absolute extremity, she and her faithful, fiercely cunning maid, Amy, manage to parcel the children out to unwilling relations. Relief arrives when their landlord, a kindly jeweler, steps in to provide for her. When his own wife leaves him, he takes the heroine as his companion, restoring her to comfort. Their union lasts until a business trip to Paris ends in tragedy: the jeweler is murdered for the valuable gems he carries in his pocket.

Now financially secure but once again alone, the heroine adapts quickly to Parisian high society. Her beauty and charm catch the attention of a high-ranking prince, who takes her into a secret, lavish affair lasting several years. During this time, she embraces a life of luxury and pride, justifying her position through the sheer grandeur and generosity of her royal lover. While in France, however, she suffers a horrifying shock when she unexpectedly glimpses her first husband, the brewer, serving as a plain soldier in the French horse guards. The encounter serves as a chilling reminder that her past life is never truly erased.

After traveling through Italy and gaining further wealth and independence, she returns to England. Refusing to submit to traditional marriage—which she views as a form of bondage that strips women of their liberty and property—she sets up a grand household in London. Disguised in an extravagant Turkish habit, she dances at high-society galas, earning the famous moniker "Lady Roxana" among the courtiers. She accumulates a massive personal fortune, managed carefully through investments in stocks, Lyon bank assignments, and Amsterdam accounts.

Yet, her wealth brings no escape from guilt. Her conscience begins to torment her over the five children she abandoned years ago. She sends Amy to secretly track them down, but this search backfires catastrophically when one of her daughters, who had once worked as a servant in Roxana's household, recognizes her. The daughter becomes obsessed with proving that the famous Lady Roxana is her mother, relentlessly hunting her across England. Terrified of public exposure and ruin, Roxana relies on Amy to manage the threat. Amy's ruthless obsession with protecting her mistress leads her to talk openly of murdering the girl—a horrific turn that fills Roxana with dread and pushes her to sever ties with her maid.

Eventually, Roxana marries a wealthy Dutch merchant who grants her the status of a countess. However, her past catches up with her entirely. Confronted by her husband over her history and her neglected children, her elaborate web of secrets unravels. Leaving England for Holland, her fortunes collapse. She ends her days in an Amsterdam debtor's prison, stripped of her riches, finding solace only in sincere religious repentance before her death.

How It Unfolds

Desperate measures Left utterly destitute by her husband, the heroine sits on the floor among rags with five starving children, forced to sell a silver spoon just to buy meat from the butcher.

A dangerous pact The friendly jeweler steps in to rescue her from starvation, offering financial security in exchange for her affection, initiating her long career as a high-class mistress.

Disaster in Paris While living sumptuously in France, the jeweler is murdered for his valuable shagreen case of gems, leaving her rich but abruptly thrown back onto her own resources.

Royal favor She enters into a secretive, multi-year affair with a prince, indulging her pride and convincing herself that the prince's grandeur makes their unlawful union morally acceptable.

Ghosts of the past At a palace in France, she unexpectedly brushes past her first husband, now a common soldier, terrifying her with the realization that her past cannot be buried.

Declaring independence Back in England, she rejects an offer of marriage, arguing forcefully that traditional marriage is a state of bondage that robs women of their natural liberty and property.

The Turkish masquerade She becomes a sensation among London's elite as "Lady Roxana," throwing lavish parties and accumulating thousands of pounds through shrewd financial management.

A dangerous hunt When she attempts to secretly assist her abandoned children, one of her daughters recognizes her and begins a relentless pursuit across the country to prove their relation.

Descent into terror Amy threatens to murder the pursuing daughter to protect the secret, causing Roxana to live in constant, horrific fear of both exposure and her maid's ruthless actions.

Confrontation and ruin Her new husband discovers her past deceit regarding her children, fracturing their marriage and exposing her carefully guarded history.

The final reckoning Surviving on a small coffee-house business in Amsterdam, she is arrested for debt and spends her final days in a common jail, devoting herself to prayer and repentance.

The People

• The Heroine (Mademoiselle de Beleau / Lady Roxana): A remarkably intelligent, pragmatic woman driven primarily by a fear of poverty and a desire for absolute financial independence. She views marriage as a trap for women, preferring to navigate society as a wealthy mistress. Despite her worldly success, she is haunted by the abandonment of her children and the moral compromises she makes to maintain her freedom.
• Amy: Roxana’s fiercely loyal and uncompromising waiting-maid. She stays with her mistress through absolute starvation without receiving wages, helping to scheme and execute Roxana's rise. Over time, her devotion turns dark and ruthless, as she becomes willing to commit murder to protect her lady's secrets.
• The Jeweller: Roxana's second major partner, a kind and generous man who saves her from initial poverty. Though bound by an estranged marriage of his own, he treats her with deep affection and leaves her well-provided for after his sudden, violent death in Paris.
• The Dutch Merchant: A prosperous, honorable man of business who eventually marries Roxana, elevating her to the title of countess. He manages her large fortune with integrity but insists on truth and morality, ultimately confronting her when her hidden past and abandoned children come to light.
• Susan (The Daughter): Roxana’s long-lost daughter, who inadvertently serves as a maid in Roxana’s London home. Tenacious and relentless, her insistence on uncovering the truth about her mother drives the climax of the narrative, acting as the ultimate instrument of Roxana’s psychological undoing.

In Its Own Voice

"I had five little children, the eldest was under ten years old, and I had not one shilling in the house to buy them victuals..."

In this early moment of sheer extremity, the heroine describes the terrifying poverty that drives her to make her first fatal moral compromise.

"...I knew no state of matrimony but what was at best a state of inferiority, if not of bondage; that I had no notion of it; that I lived a life of absolute liberty now..."

Here, she boldly rejects a traditional marriage proposal, articulating a fiercely independent philosophy of female autonomy and economic freedom.

"...the notion of being discovered carried with it so many frightful ideas, and hurried my thoughts so much, that I was scarce myself any more than Amy, so dreadful a thing is a load of guilt upon the mind."

At the height of her worldly success, she reveals the deep psychological terror and guilt that torment her as her past catches up with her.

What It's Really About

Beneath its colorful narrative of courtly affairs and social mobility, The Fortunate Mistress is a tough-minded examination of financial survival and female autonomy in a male-dominated society. Defoe strips away romantic idealizations to present a clear-eyed look at the economic pressures facing women of the era. For the heroine, virtue is a luxury that requires financial stability; without money, a woman faces literal starvation.

The book grapples deeply with the concept of liberty. Roxana explicitly critiques legal marriage as an institution designed to strip women of their wealth and self-governance. However, her quest for absolute independence creates a profound moral conflict. To secure her autonomy and wealth, she must cut the natural ties of motherhood and live a life of constant deception. Ultimately, the novel argues that material success built on moral compromise is an illusion, as the psychological weight of guilt and the inexorable return of the past will eventually dismantle even the grandest fortune.

Why Read It Today

The Fortunate Mistress remains a surprisingly modern and unsparing novel. Unlike many eighteenth-century stories that treat female protagonists as either helpless victims or pure villains, Defoe gives us a complex, highly intelligent heroine who rationalizes her choices with compelling logic. Readers who enjoy psychological depth, sharp social commentary, and stories of self-made survival will find Roxana's voice captivating. Her insistence on financial self-reliance and her candid critiques of marriage sound remarkably contemporary.

The book does present some reading challenges typical of its era. The prose flows in long, sweeping sentences with erratic historical dates, and the narrative places a heavy emphasis on meticulous financial ledgers, investments, and practical logistics that can occasionally slow the dramatic pace. Furthermore, the attitudes toward social class and religious morality reflect the rigid norms of the early 1700s.

Yet what stays with you long after finishing is the sheer psychological tension of the final chapters. The relentless pursuit of Roxana by her own daughter turns the novel into a claustrophobic thriller about the impossibility of escaping one's past. Defoe creates a unforgettable portrait of a woman who conquers the world financially, only to lose her peace of mind entirely.

<ElicitationsGroup message="If you'd like to explore this classic further:"> <Elicitation label="Compare Roxana's character to Moll Flanders" query="Compare the character of Roxana with Defoe's Moll Flanders in terms of their motivations, choices, and final fates."/> <Elicitation label="Analyze the feminist themes in Roxana's marriage speech" query="Provide an analysis of Roxana's famous arguments against marriage and how they reflect early 18th-century views on female autonomy."/> </ElicitationsGroup>