The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

Daniel Defoe, David Blewett

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English

Penguin Classics
25 May 1989

Born in Newgate prison and abandoned six months later, Moll's drive to find and hold on to a secure place in society propels her through incest, adultery, bigamy, prostitution and a resourceful career as a thief ('the greatest Artist of my time') before she is apprehended and returned to Newgate.

If Moll Flanders is on one level a Puritan's tale of sin and repentance, through self-made, self-reliant Moll its rich subtext conveys all the paradoxes and amoralities of the struggle for property and power in Defoe's newly individualistic society.

By: Daniel Defoe
Edited by: David Blewett
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 130mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 334g
ISBN: 9780140433135
ISBN 10: 0140433139
Pages: 480
Publication Date: 25 May 1989
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Daniel Defoe was born in London in 1660. He was a successful hosiery merchant. He served as a secret agent for William III and single-handedly produced the review, a pro-government newspaper. He turned to fiction late in life and published his firstimaginative work 'Robinson Crusoe' in 1719. Defoe had a great influence on the development of the English novel and many consider him to be the first true novelist. David Blewett is Professor of English at Mcmaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Reviews for The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

“The brilliance of Moll Flanders, and of the best of Defoe’s other novels, is that they dramatize the uncertainty that goes with the opportunism, and show us a world in which, if you can make yourself, you can lose yourself too.” –from the Introduction by John Mullan