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Daniel Defoe's bawdy tale of a woman's struggle for independence and redemption, Moll Flanders is edited with an introduction and notes by David Blewett in Penguin Classics.

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... Read Full Overview

Daniel Defoe's bawdy tale of a woman's struggle for independence and redemption, Moll Flanders is edited with an introduction and notes by David Blewett in Penguin Classics. Born in Newgate prison and abandoned six months later, Moll Flanders' drive to find and hold on to a secure... Read Full Overview

First published in 1722, Daniel Defoe's "Moll Flanders" is the classic and tragic morality tale of its title character. Based in part on the true story of a female criminal that Defoe met in Newgate Prison, Moll Flanders is the daughter of a convict and is driven by a singular... Read Full Overview

A tour-de-force of writing by Daniel Defoe, this extraordinary novel tells the vivid and racy tale of a woman's experience in the seamy side of life in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England and America. Born in Newgate prison, and seduced in the home of her adoptive... Read Full Overview

Daniel Defoe's classic tale of the eponymous Moll Flanders. In Defoe's words:The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. 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... Read Full Overview

Moll, which she emphasizes is not her birth name, though she never does reveal what it was, is raised until she is teenager in America by a foster mother. She then gets a job as a household servant where she is loved by both of the families sons. The oldest convinces her to "act... Read Full Overview

These are the fortunes and misfortunes of Moll Flanders: born in Newgate Prison, twelve years a prostitute, five times a wife (once to her own brother), twelve years a thief and eight years a transported felon in Her Majesty's colony of Virginia. Daniel Defoe's rollicking tale... Read Full Overview

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 Flanderswas shaped by the conventions... Read Full Overview

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... Read Full Overview

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... Read Full Overview

One of the earliest picaresque novels in English, Moll Flanders has both captivated and shocked countless readers since it was first published in 1722. A masterpiece of fiction, written in the form of an autobiographical memoir, the novel describes Moll on the original... Read Full Overview

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... Read Full Overview

Moll Flanders is born in Newgate Prison and raised by a kindly foster mother. Eventually she becomes a servant in a house where she first realises the effect she has on men. Greedy and ambitious, Moll decides to pursue only wealthy men. She bears many children,... Read Full Overview