The 1740 Roxana: Defoe, Haywood, Richardson, and domestic fiction

• Published in: Philological quarterly Vol. 88; no. 1-2; pp. 103 - 126
• Main Author: Seager, Nicholas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Iowa City University of Iowa 01.01.2009; University of Iowa, Philological Quarterly
• Subjects: Authors; British & Irish literature; Criticism and interpretation; Defoe, Daniel; Defoe, Daniel (1660-1731); Domestic drama; English literature; Fiction; Haywood, Eliza; Interruptions; Novels; Richardson, Samuel; Women; Writers; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 0031-7977; 2169-5342

Just as Robinson Crusoe only took the shape that we recognize from our array of modern editions at the start of the twentieth century, when Crusoe's Farther Adventures was decisively lopped off, so Roxana only became the novel we read now at a similar time when these sequels were put to bed.2 They have since slumbered with few interruptions until quite recently: amidst a smattering of recent studies by John Mullan, P. N. Furbank and W. R. Owens, and Robert Griffin, Spiro Peterson's unpublished 1953 doctorate remains the fullest scholarly treatment.3 Amongst six distinct continuations of Roxana (originally entitled The Fortunate Mistress) in the eighteenth century, the most significant ones came in 1740, 1745, and 1775. After fulminating against aggressive women and reporting Diogenes' wisdom that a woman hanging from its branch is the best fruit a tree can bear (material again plagiarized from de Britaine), "Roxana" criticizes general misogyny, hoping that her son has "no Kindness for those morose Cynicks, who sully the Glory of the riches [t] Jewels in the Cabinet of Nature."