another woman, another story…un’altra storia di una donna del 1700

Lady Roxana  by Daniel Defoe (1724)
Roxana’s parents are from France, quite rich,  but forced to come to England because persecuted as non-Roman Catholic. Roxana is a beautiful  young girl, and a very good dancer. She is also quite well off (wealthy, rich = benestante) as her father has left her over 3,000 livres (well over $100,000 dollars in contemporary money). Unfortunately,  at 15 years old she marries a handsome young man who squanders (dissipates= spreca, dissipa) all her money. One day, he simply disappears from Roxana’s life, leaving her, their five children and a domestic – Amy –   in complete poverty.
Roxana cannot pay the rent (= affitto) or feed (= sfamare) the children and the landlord (= padrone di casa) takes them any – very few- possession they have. Amy, very pragmatically, persuades her to ask for the help of her sisters’ husband. But they refuse. Amy plans to abandon  a couple of children at one of Roxana’s sister . Roxana becomes her landlord’s mistress (lover =amante) and both she and Amy have a child by him. The landlord is murdered and Roxana starts having a series of lovers till she marries a Dutch merchant. But her story as a lover has not an end and her life will have a sudden turn (= svolta improvvisa) when  a young girl arrives: she is probably one of her daughters….
The novel is un-finished