Moll Flanders

Summary

The original title says it all: 'The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continue'd Variety for Three-score 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.' So begins Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe’s honest portrayal of one woman’sstruggle for economic survival in an unsympathetic world. Told withuncompromising directness and an extraordinary empathy, it is, as Virginia Woolfonce claimed, ‘one of the few English novels we can call indisputably great’.