First published in 1722, 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.
‘Moll Flanders’ is among some of the first works to be written in novel form, a lengthy fictional work written in prose. Because the novel had not yet gained wide popularity, the work is written as though it is an autobiographical report by Moll, herself. This pattern is seen in many of the early novels.
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