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Moll Flanders
kinda boring, but insightful
Moll's a doll--especially at $2.50
Boy Do I Love Moll Flanders!
Give me not Poverty, lest I steal

Moll Flanders (Wordsworth Classics)
Daniel Defoe
Manufacturer: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1853260738

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The recent adaptation of Moll Flanders for Masterpiece Theater is a book-lover's dream: the dialogue and scene arrangement are close enough to allow the viewer to follow along in the book. The liberties taken with the tale are few (some years of childhood between the gypsies and the wealthy family are elided; Moll is Moll throughout the tale, rather than Mrs. Betty; Robert becomes Rowland, etc.) and the sets avoid the careless anachronism of the movie version released earlier this year.

The breasts, raised skirts, tumbling hair and heavy breathing on the small screen might catch you by surprise if you don't read the book carefully (as might Moll's abandonment of her children on more than one occasion). Unlike his near-contemporary John Cleland (_Fanny Hill_), Defoe was trying to keep out of jail, and so didn't dwell on the details of "correspondence" between Moll and her varied lovers. But on the page and on the screen, Moll comes across quite clearly as a woman who might bend, but refuses to break, and who is intent on having as good a life as she can get.

E. M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel considers Moll and her creator's art in some detail. While he finds much to criticize in Defoe's ability to plot (where did those last two children go, anyway?), he is as besotted with Moll as I am. Immoral? Sure -- but immortal, and never, ever dull. We hope at least a few of the viewers of the recent adaptation take a couple hours to discover the original, inimitable Moll Flanders.

Book Description

Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title-offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All editions are complete and unabridged, and feature Introductions and Afterwords.This edition of Moll Flanders includes a Foreword, Biographical Note, and Afterword by Nancy Springer.The conditions of Moll Flanders' birth could not have been more depressing. Her mother was a petty thief who was caught and sent to the notorious Newgate prison in London. It was in that prison that Moll was born. Deemed an orphan, Moll was later sent to apprentice as a servant with a respectable family. Moll has designs on a life better than serving others. But as she discovers, independence and fortune are not easy to come by. A string of dreadful misfortunes--including five luckless marriages--force Moll into the streets, where her only means of support is a life of crime.But Moll refuses to give up: she will succeed!Moll Flanders is a triumphant portrait of a strong-willed woman determined to make her own way in eighteenth-century England.

Download Description

This vivid saga of an irresistible and notorious heroine - her high misdemeanors and delinquencies, her varied careers as a prostitute, a charming and faithful wife, a thief, and a convict - endures today as one of the liveliest, most candid records of a woman's progress through the hypercritical labyrinth of society ever recorded.\

Customer Reviews:

Moll Flanders.......2007-02-20

This book has the honor of being one of only two books that I have ever read that I TRULY regret having wasted my time on. I really and truly did not think that I would be able to finish this one BUT I ALWAYS finish a book once I start it. In my opinion this is one of those cases when a very controversial novel gets confused with a great novel. I am however VERY grateful that I picked it up at a library sale for only 50 cents.
; 0 ) Sorry Moll Flanders fans.

kinda boring, but insightful.......2007-01-04

the plot can get a little slow, but offers a good insight into English crime of the 18th century.

Moll's a doll--especially at $2.50.......2006-10-06

Daniel Defoe, hot on the heels of "Robinson Crusoe" came under considerable fire when "Moll Flanders" was published. She was called immoral, when, in fact, she is amoral. Churches and universities could not understand why Defoe was fascinated with characters considered "low". The fact is, the public adored her and the novel. And it continues to do so to this day.

But, as I've repeated in other reviews, the Dover Thrift edition makes it even more of an attractive purchase. Well-bound and sturdy, it's the best thing you can do with the $5.00 you can spare in your pocket. And, if you're like me, and you have to teach this book, it takes a great financial burden on your already overburdened students.

Boy Do I Love Moll Flanders!.......2005-09-12

Not just the book, which is awesome, too, I mean the woman, the character here, she cracks me up. She was sooooo amoral, so raunchy, so do-anything that she makes even the great Scarlett O' Hara seem tame and slow moving. Moll's story covers most of the 17th century and takes us in among all levels of society, from the poorest of the poor, to the richest of the rich. Here for the meeting are highwaymen, convicts and clergy, landed gentry, disenfranchised priests, and Virginia colonists. And if you read between the lines you'll also find Moll's story has more sex plastered through it than a season worth of Desperate Housewives with half of HBO's lineup thrown in to boot. And you know what's really wickedly hilarious here? They let this astonishingly great classic be read in high school literature classes everywhere! I love it! More fornication, theft, sacrilege here than a month of junk-TV and yet it's assigned classroom material. Oh, man. The rises and falls in the remarkable life story of English literature's most durable and clever heroine make for a plot that's never boring and typically has a reader balanced on the edge of her seat to see where Moll, the ultimate survivor, is going to end up next.

Give me not Poverty, lest I steal.......2005-09-03

This human portrait of a woman is also an excellent sketch of the living conditions and the social stratification in England in the 18th century: 'the Age is so wicked and the Sex so Debauch'd'.
It shows the immense chasm between a small class of wealthy people and the rest (Swift: 'a thousand to one'). The latter were struggling for sheer survival and praying 'Give me not Poverty, lest I steal' ... to be hanged: 'If I swing by the String, I shall hear the Bell ring, and then there's an End of poor Jenny.'

But both classes intermingled.
As E.J. Burford quotes in his masterful book 'The Synfulle Citie':
Those who were riche were hangid by the Pursse
Those who were poore were hangid by the Necke

Moll Flanders: 'the passive Jade thinks of no Pleasure but the Money; and when he is as it were drunk in the Extasies of his wicked Pleasure, her Hands are in his Pockets.'

The poor's religion was fatalism. Moll Flanders is all the time reproaching herself her Course of Life, 'a horrid Complication of Wickedness, Whoredom, Adultery, Incest, Lying, Theft...', but in the face of death at the gallows: 'I had now neither Remorse or Repentance ... no Thought of Heaven or Hell ... I neither had a Heart to ask God's Mercy.'

Defoe's work is eminently modern with his psychological insight: 'What a Felicity is it to Mankind that they cannot see into the Hearts of one another, and 'Modest men are better Hypocrites';
or, the ravage of alcoholism: 'the Drunk are the Men of whom Solomon says , they go like an Ox to the slaughter, till a Dart strikes through their Liver';
and his feminism: 'the Disadvantage of the Women is a terrible Scandal upon Men', and 'Money only made a Woman agreeable'.

Defoe's appeal to the reader 'every Branch of my Story may be useful to honest People', seems to be a smokescreen in order to circumvent censorship, because ultimately Moll Flanders prospers. This book is a perfect illustration of Bernard Mandeville's 'Triumph of Private Vices' in his 'Fable of the Bees'.

Although some developments in this story are rather improbable, this superbly ironic and lively text constitutes an immortal portrait of the 'horrid Complication' to be a woman, here personified in Moll Flanders.
Not to be missed.

Average customer rating:

Assertive Adventurer
Moll Flanders
Controversial
Good Language, Bad Plot
Moll Flanders

Moll Flanders (Modern Library Classics)
Daniel Defoe
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375760105
Release Date: 2002-06-11

Book Description

Written in a time when criminal biographies enjoyed great success, Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders details the life of the irresistible Moll and her struggles through poverty and sin in search of property and power. Born in Newgate Prison to a picaresque mother, Moll propels herself through marriages, periods of success and destitution, and a trip to the New World and back, only to return to the place of her birth as a popular prostitute and brilliant thief. The story of Moll Flanders vividly illustrates Defoe’s themes of social mobility and predestination, sin, redemption and reward.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the 1721 edition printed by Chetwood in London, the only edition approved by Defoe.

Customer Reviews:

Assertive Adventurer.......2004-03-20

"Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu'd Variety for threescore years, besides her childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (Whereof once to her own Brother) Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and died a Penitent" (original title page), this is the beginning of an exciting book, Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. It is written in elevated language making it a difficult, but rewarding read. The novel is an accounting of the narrator, Moll's life. The focus is on how Moll deals with the hardships of her life and with being a woman in the seventeenth century. Defoe does an excellent job of showing how Moll's experiences change her outlook.
Moll Flanders was written in 1683, during a time in which women were considered subservient to men. Women were expected to get married and be content with the household affairs. However, money was the key, without it one would be unable to find a husband of position that would be a good provider. If a woman, like Moll, found herself alone and herself to rely upon, she discovered that there were not many options available, "I found by experience, that to be Friendless is the worst Condition, next to being in want, that a Woman can be reduc'd to: I say a Women, because `tis evident Men can be their own Advisers, and their own Directors, and know how to work themselves out of Difficulties and into Business better than women; but if a Woman has no Friend to Communicate her Affairs to, and to advise and assist her, tis' ten to one but she is undone" (121). Men dominated the business world and women were never taught to manage their own affairs or given the skills to enable them to make it in the business world. In fact, it was illegal for most women to do so. Without any acquaintances or contacts, a woman of this time was put at the mercy of strangers and fate. A woman that managed to be on her own was often suspected to be of ill reputation, and if she was labeled as such then life would be much harder.
Moll had a hard life from the beginning. She was born in Newgate prison, then taken in by a woman she dubbed Mistress Nurse. From an early age she wanted to become a gentlewoman, "...what I meant by being a Gentlewomen; and that I understood by it to be nothing more, than to be able to get my Bread by my own Work" (15). Upon her Mistress Nurse's death she was hired a servant in a high-class home. She became the lover to the eldest son, but the younger son fell in love with her and Moll was forced to marry him. He soon died and Moll married a "Gentleman-Tradesman" who spent all of their money, and had to leave the country to escape his creditors. Being very much desolate Moll realized, "Beauty, Wit, Manners, Sense, good Humour, good Behaviour, Education, Virtue, Piety, or any other Qualification, whether of Body or Mind, had no power to recommend: that Money only made a Women agreeable" (64). So Moll passed herself off as a woman of fortune, and married again. She moved with her husband to Virginia, and there realized that he was her brother. Upon that realization, Moll moved back to England. Upon her return she met another man, and over time became his mistress. After a terrible illness he decided that he could not live in sin with Moll any longer and turned her out. Moll then was tricked into marrying a man she believed to be very rich, and he was also deceived into believing she is a fortune. Having no money, they parted ways. Moll then married her accountant. After his death she was very poor, and out of desperation she became a thief. "The thoughts of this Booty put out all the thoughts of the first, and the Reflections I had made wore quickly off; Poverty, as I have said, harden'd my Heart, and my own Necessities made me regardless of any thing" (182). After a successful career as a thief, Moll was finally arrested and sent to Newgate. There she meets up with her fourth husband who was discovered to be a highwayman. They are both transported to Virginia where they buy a plantation together and eventually grow rich. Moll thus became a Gentlewoman.
In the male dominated society of the seventeenth century it was extremely difficult for a woman to make it on her own. Through Moll's experiences Defoe shows the difficult position a woman was faced with the lack of social liberty. Every plot development changes Moll slightly. Her Character almost completely changes as she becomes manipulative to get what she wants and needs to survive. This is apparent through her comments about her fifth husband before she married him, "I play'd with this Lover, as an Angler does with a Trout: I found I had him fast on the Hook, so I jested with his new Proposal" (133). The change in Moll's personality occurs slowly, but it makes her a more convincing character as well as highlights the effects of the hardships she endures. In the depiction of Moll's life, Defoe succeeds in questioning the subservient position that society forced women into in the seventeenth century.
The elevated language in Moll Flanders makes it a complicated read, however, if one is able to get past that obstacle the reader is rewarded with an outstanding story. Moll's life was a true adventure. Defoe's focus on Moll gives the reader insight into the hardships of the life of a woman in the seventeenth century, as well as shows the difficulty of getting ahead in those times. In a period where women were considered to be subservient to men, Moll was an assertive woman whose life was a great adventure.

Moll Flanders.......2004-01-25

I particularly loved this book. I thought it was very cleverly written. I was able to get into the character's life situations and I always wanted to see what would happen to the woman next.

Controversial.......2003-12-23

Obviously, this novel is about a prostitute. The writing accompanies this woman's journey without being dry or repetitive. I enjoyed it for it's inspection of femininity of the time as well as the clashing deviousness and classic redemption thrown together in the character of Moll Flanders.

Good Language, Bad Plot.......2003-04-22

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe is neither the best nor the worst book I have ever read. I have long been a lover of classical language. As such, I am enchanted by the engaging rhythm of Defoe's words. His dialogue is charming as he uses a tongue and accent not much different from today's but far more elegant. The plot of the story, however, disappoints me. The story is wholly comprised of events, making it nothing more than a flowery timeline of one woman's life. For me, this odd combination of excellent language and mediocre plot makes for an ultimately readable yet slightly dissatisfying novel.

Moll Flanders is the story of one woman's struggle to avoid the plight of poverty in seventeenth-century England. Moll is born in Newgate prison and orphaned by her criminal mother. From there, she is taken in by a kindly woman and raised as a "gentlewoman," and thus her story begins. Moll's childhood innocence is quickly transformed as her life turns from that of a simple servant into that of a common prostitute. She soon learns that sex and marriage are merely tools for bartering with, and love is only worth its weight in gold. Eventually, Moll turns from prostitution to stealing in order to supplement her finances, and her life goes drastically downhill from there. Her story is littered with unresolved sin and shame, until one momentous event changes her entire outlook on life and on love and teaches her what it means to be righteous.

Ultimately, what sounds like an intriguing story line results only in one continuous stream of events. Defoe's style of writing, although nicely worded, is impersonal in that he includes very little about the thoughts and feelings of Moll. Everything the reader learns about the main character is derived entirely from the events that comprise her life. Although this is supposed to be Moll's story, she has no reaction to the world around her. She simply reiterates what actions she has taken on her journey through life and what the resulting consequences are for those actions. Though hardly imagined to be a complete imbecile, Moll has absolutely no thought. The only words that I hear spoken directly from her mouth to the reader are words of dialogue to another character. The banality of this style of literature is highly disappointing in my eyes.

I am also highly disappointed with the content of the story. Only the first few pages and the last few pages are void of any criminal or adulterous behavior. Every other page contains a perfect recollection of one sin after the other. Although the story claims that this unrelenting wickedness should be useful to deter other sinners, I find that the continuous stream practically drowns me with boredom. Eventually, I lose track of Moll's numerous husbands and her countless thieving exploits. Any time a reference is made to her past history, I am forced to flip through the pages to find the mentioned sin as I have gotten it confused with some other of a similar nature. By the end of the story, every adventure sounds the same and every man has the same amount of money. I would have liked to see more variety in these pages.

I would not discourage another person from reading this book, however. I would gladly recommend it to those who love classical language, for I find Daniel Defoe was a great author for the words he could write, not necessarily for the stories he could create. The language is beautiful and enticing, for that alone I would recommend the book. Keep track of events and people while reading, though, because everything starts to sound the same after awhile.

Moll Flanders.......2002-07-17

This book is about a woman, Moll Flanders, who was born in a prison and raised by a governess that brought her up as a "gentlewoman". ALthough her manners were that of a gentlewoman, circumstances led her to become a thief and a "whore" (her own term), and her spirit kept her in that trade until she re-lived her mother's fate.
It is hard to believe that this book is written by a man, for he knows female nature very well and looks very critically at the actions of men towards Moll. I would almost call this book feminist, although I don't like to use that term, since it makes men run from those books. I use that term very loosely, since it really does not go into any deeper feminst issues. This book is filled with adventures and is funny and witty, although its storyline is somewhat grim. I really wanted to give this book 3 1/2 stars because it left me wanting for more, not just at the end, but throughout. All events are described in very little detail, and I personally wanted to know more about Moll and other characters. Overall, I liked it because it managed to entertain me and because it's fast and short, it grabs your attention.

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Moll Flanders (The Classic Collection)
Daniel Defoe
Manufacturer: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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Lord Jim

ASIN: 1423310586
Release Date: 2006-06-25

Book Description

Moll Flanders, Defoe's 18th Century classic novel, was "marketed" in its day in much the same way that a modern commercial novel might be - its title page promised the racy details of a woman's life spent in thievery and whoredom. The book is much more than this; it is a Puritan tale of sin, repentance, conversion, and redemption. It is also seen by many critics as a satirical and ironic picaresque novel with a twist (that being its female protagonist). On yet another level, it is a playful and beguiling social commentary set between the Puritan age (which saw humankind as fallen) and the Age of Reason in which humankind was seen as born innocent and good and corrupted by society.

Taking center stage in this whorl of irony, humor, pathos, and religious faith is one Moll Flanders - both the most plausible sinner and the most pious repentant in English literature; arguably the most notorious heroine in the canon of fiction in the English language. She is as controversial today as when she first appeared in 1722.

Moll Flanders (Norton Critical Editions)

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Give me not Poverty, lest I steal
Dust off this musty book for some good social critique

Moll Flanders (Norton Critical Editions)
Daniel Defoe
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Love in Excess

ASIN: 0393978621

Book Description

Moll Flanders is one of the best-selling novels of all time. This Norton Critical Edition is again based on the first edition text (1722), the only text known to be Defoe's own. It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and the editor's essay outlining the novel's textual history.

"Contexts" collects related documents on criminal transport, contemporary accounts of lives of crime, and colonial laws as they applied to servants, slaves, and runaways.

"Criticism" includes eleven interpretations by Juliet McMaster, Everett Zimmerman, Maximillian E. Novak, Henry Knight Miller, Ian A. Bell, Carol Kay, Paula B. Backscheider, John Rietz, Ann Louise Kibbie, John Richetti, and Ellen Pollak.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

About the series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.

Customer Reviews:

Give me not Poverty, lest I steal.......2005-09-03

This human portrait of a woman is also an excellent sketch of the living conditions and the social stratification in England in the 18th century: 'the Age is so wicked and the Sex so Debauch'd'.
It shows the immense chasm between a small class of wealthy people and the rest (Swift: a thousand to one). The latter were struggling for sheer survival and praying 'Give me not Poverty, lest I steal' ... to be hanged: 'If I swing by the String, I shall hear the Bell ring, and then there's an End of poor Jenny.'

But both classes intermingled.
As E.J. Burford quotes in his masterful book 'The Synfulle Citie':
Those who were riche were hangid by the Pursse
Those who were poore were hangid by the Necke

Defoe's Moll Flanders: 'the passive Jade thinks of no Pleasure but the Money; and when he is as it were drunk in the Extasies of his wicked Pleasure, her Hands are in his Pockets.'

Defoe paints the poor's religion as fatalism. Moll Flanders is all the time reproaching herself her Course of life, 'a horrid Complication of Wickedness, Whoredom, Adultery, Incest, Lying, Theft', but in the face of death at the gallows, 'I had now neither Remorse or Repentance ... no Thought of Heaven or Hell ... I neither had a Heart to ask God's Mercy.'

Defoe's work is eminently modern, with his psychological insight 'What a Felicity is it to Mankind that they cannot see into the Hearts of one another', and 'Modest men are better Hypocrites';
or, the ravages of alcoholism: 'the Drunk are the Men whom Solomon says, they go like an Ox to the Slaughter, till a Dart strikes through their Liver';
and his feminism: 'the Disadvantage of the Women is a terrible Scandal upon Men', and 'Money only made a Woman agreeable.'

Defoe's appeal to the reader - 'every Branch of my Story may be useful to honest People' - seems to be a smokescreen to circumvent censorship, because ultimately Moll Flanders prospers. This book is a perfect illustration of Bernard
Mandeville's 'Triumph of Private Vices' in his 'Fable of the Bees'.

Although some developments in this story are rather improbable, this superbly ironic and lively text constitutes an immortal portrait of the 'horrid Complication' to be a woman, here personified in Moll Flanders.
Not to be missed.

Dust off this musty book for some good social critique.......2004-09-21

Moll Flanders is a typical 18th Century book that one would read in a class about early English novels. Daniel Defoe's so-called `masterpiece' gets labeled sometimes as one of the first novels ever written, and sometimes the prose shows. Written from the first-person perspective of the title character, Moll
Flanders tells the tale of a poor social low-life who has to turn to a life of crime after five failed marriages. Readers receive a rambling narrative of colorful characters that reside in the underbelly of 18th Century London. Moll Flanders was written originally as a sordid account that was to be taken as
`fact,' because of the way that Defoe mimicked the book after a popular form at the time that interviewed criminals on their deathbed. Defoe and his contemporaries used to compile these tales of redemption or non-repentance into what was called the Newgate Records. As the reader feels bad for Moll throughout the text, readers will see her go from a life of barely getting by to marrying her brother by accident to living a life of crime
through her own agency. A sophisticated critique of the prison system and class economics of England, Defoe's work stands the test of time for fresh commentary and readability. While most people might find Defoe's writing style to be a bit antiquated, the story is not, and will most likely reach its intended
audience. It's still true today that those criminals who become public examples are the ones from most of the lower castes, as are most criminals in general. The biggest question in Defoe's Moll Flanders still remains unanswered: How can one move up in a society that benefits those without any sort of inherited wealth or the means to further their position?

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Moll Flanders (Broadview Edition)
Daniel Defoe
Manufacturer: Broadview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Female Quixote: or The Adventures of Arabella (Oxford World's Classics)

ASIN: 1551114518

Book Description

Born to a petty thief in London's notorious Newgate prison and determined to make her way in a rapacious and materialistic society, Moll Flanders recounts the "fortunes and misfortunes" of her turbulent life in this 1722 novel. Though Moll Flanders was shaped by the conventions of criminal biography, Defoe also drew on other literary traditions and his own rich background to create a remarkably original—and still controversial—work.

Customer Reviews:

Daniel Defoe at his best........2000-06-09

Robinson Crusoe has always been Dafoe best known work but in my opinion Moll Flanders is far superior piece of literature. We follow Moll throughout her life of poverty, five marriages, live in crime and at last she finds lasting happiness or contentment. That, of course, is brought about her repentance for the "wicked" life she had led. The novel is written in a format that Moll tells her story in the first person to the audiance of a journalist. If this was a movie the format would be best described as a "Mocumentary". The language is at times difficult but for anyone who has read Shakespeare or other literature from that time it should not be an obstacle. If this story would be published today with contemperary caracters it would in all likelyhood be considered pulp fiction but Moll Flanders is anything but.

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Moll Flanders (Signet Classics)
Daniel Defoe
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451529855

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders

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The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders
Daniel, Defoe
Manufacturer: Pomona Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1406791997

Book Description

This moral comedy of low life set in the reign of Charles II, and probably suggested to the author's imagination by the story of some real criminal whom he met in Newgate, the 'Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders' - how she was five times a wife, twelve years a thief, eight years a transported felon, 'at last grew rich, and died a penitent' - are told with that directness of narrative and reality of incident in which Defoe has never been equalled. Moll herself has incurred the righteous censure of many generations; yet she still has the power to pickpocket our affections. She give us, as Mr. E.M. Forster wrote, 'the thrill that proceeds from a living being. She moves us as having height and weight, as breathing and eating, and doing many of the things which are usually left out.'

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