Moll Flanders

Rating:
Summary: This book is sooooooooooo good.
Review: I love this book. I saw the movie and thought it was better than the book. I would recomend this book to people who like history.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting Tale of 18th Century Life
Review: I loved this novel, having read it for a classics book club. I probably would not have picked this up on my own, and I am thankful to the club for the selection. Moll was a sympathetic character in all aspects except for the abandonment of her numerous children. I especially enjoyed that she marked different periods of her life by the amount of money she had; money being the only safe form of love she knew. She reminded me of Tom Ripley in the Patricia Highsmith novels, extremely clever when extricating oneself out of touchy situations. I think this is a great choice for bookclubs as well, having sparked meaningful discussion in our group.

Rating:
Summary: Just rent the BBC version!
Review: I saw the BBC version of this book when it was on PBS a few years ago and greatly enjoyed it, but I can't seem to be able to finish the book! The first page tells you everything: 12 years a prostitute, 5 times a wife, 12 years a thief, 8 years a felon, and at last grew rich, lived honest, and died a penitent. It has some interesting things to say about love and marriage, but boy is it hard to get through!!

Rating:
Summary: The first great female character in English prose
Review: I think MOLL FLANDERS is my favorite novel of all time. The novel form was in its infancy at the time MOLL FLANDERS was written. In fact, Defoe is often called "the father of the English novel." Actually, as a novel it's very primitive. Defoe's fiction is usually a first person narrative told by an ambitious person, recounting how he got where he is today. In Moll Flanders, Defoe presents the autobiography of a woman who rises from an ignominious birth in Newgate Prison, and a childhood as a servant. Early on, Moll learns that she is beautiful and that she is attractive to the opposite sex. What's great about the book is its delicious irony. Oh there are times when she gets caught in her own traps, she's a sly one, that Moll. It's very difficult at times to think of Moll as a fictional character. But she is, in fact, the first great female character in English prose. I never cease to be amazed that the book was written by a man. There are moments in the book that I find very moving, like when she realizes that she's no longer pretty enough to attract men without resorting to makeup. "I never had to paint my face before." And of course there's that unsettling surprise she receives toward the end of the novel. This is a great and important book and hardly anyone has read it. I don't know why. I have recommended this book to probably a hundred people. To the best of my knowledge, not a single one of them has taken my advice. It's their loss. I LOVE Moll Flanders.

Rating:
Summary: The first great female character in English prose
Review: I think MOLL FLANDERS is my favorite novel of all time. The novel form was in its infancy at the time MOLL FLANDERS was written. In fact, Defoe is often called "the father of the English novel." Actually, as a novel it's very primitive. Defoe's fiction is usually a first person narrative told by an ambitious person, recounting how he got where he is today. In Moll Flanders, Defoe presents the autobiography of a woman who rises from an ignominious birth in Newgate Prison, and a childhood as a servant. Early on, Moll learns that she is beautiful and that she is attractive to the opposite sex. What's great about the book is its delicious irony. Oh there are times when she gets caught in her own traps, she's a sly one, that Moll. It's very difficult at times to think of Moll as a fictional character. But she is, in fact, the first great female character in English prose. I never cease to be amazed that the book was written by a man. There are moments in the book that I find very moving, like when she realizes that she's no longer pretty enough to attract men without resorting to makeup. "I never had to paint my face before." And of course there's that unsettling surprise she receives toward the end of the novel. This is a great and important book and hardly anyone has read it. I don't know why. I have recommended this book to probably a hundred people. To the best of my knowledge, not a single one of them has taken my advice. It's their loss. I LOVE Moll Flanders.

Rating:
Summary: Moll Sins But Does Not Repent
Review: It is a shame that for most Americans the only knowledge that they have of Defoe's MOLL FLANDERS is that which was taken from the various movie and television adaptions. The screen Moll focuses on the superficially glitzy part of what Defoe meant to be the edifying tale of a street trollop who uses her wits unrepentingly to enrich herself without worrying about the consequences. The transition of Moll from page to screen leaves out the feeling that life was, for her, one long debit page with the cost of an item to be balanced by its functional use.

Moll did not start out as an unregenerate guttersnipe. At the book's start, Defoe is careful to portray her as the innocent lamb cast adrift in a sea of unscrupulous men. The world of Moll Flanders, the England of the 17th century, was not one designed to harbor any illusions that innocence could long remain that way in the face of ubiquitous lechery and poverty. Moll is seduced, then abandoned, and at the ripe age of 16,must fend for herself. The only coin that she retains to provide herself with the necessities of life is the one that she sits on.

MOLL FLANDERS is unique among fallen from virtue women tales in its structure and incessant theme that to survive in an immoral world, one must be more immoral than everyone else. The novel itself is not divided into chapters. It is simply one very long series of vignettes, extending over many years, that portray Moll as the most infamous flat character in English literature. Moll's story can be summarized thusly: Moll steals, Moll eludes the law, Moll has innumerable (and unnamed) children, Moll commits incest (unknowingly) with her brother, Moll gets caught and is imprisoned. Throughout all of this, Moll changes not a whit. Her primary defense against a very nearly nonexistent conscience is her powerful sense of rationalization. One day, she sees a young child with some valuables hanging about his clothes. She pickpockets them, telling herself that the loss of these trifles ought to alert his parents that they could just have easily has suffered the loss of that child. Moll glides through life, usually coming out on top. As she gains reknown for her ill-deeds, she takes the time to compare her lot with those other poverty-stricken women who chose a life of virtue over crime. Moll cackles at their foolishness. The only time in the novel that she shows any remorse occurs when she is finally caught. At Rhett Butler said to Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND, 'You are not sorry you committed wrong, but you are very sorry you got caught.'

The question that modern readers have to grapple with is the intent of Daniel Defoe in presenting a woman whom today we would call a whore-grifter. Despite the tight focus on Moll, all that we learn of her after 300 pages of whoring is that she enjoyed her life with a gusto and cared not a fig about the consequences to her or to anyone else. Morality, Defoe seems to imply, is infinitely elastic, and its ultimate use is to justify the taking of material objects that rightfully belong to others. Moll, then, is the ancestor of Madonna's 'Material Girl,' one who blithely assumes that the bill for immorality need never be paid. Perhaps Defoe's inner lesson about Moll is that this elasticity of morality does result in an inevitable, if unwanted, payoff after all.

Rating:
Summary: Moll Sins But Does Not Repent
Review: It is a shame that for most Americans the only knowledge that they have of Defoe's MOLL FLANDERS is that which was taken from the various movie and television adaptions. The screen Moll focuses on the superficially glitzy part of what Defoe meant to be the edifying tale of a street trollop who uses her wits unrepentingly to enrich herself without worrying about the consequences. The transition of Moll from page to screen leaves out the feeling that life was, for her, one long debit page with the cost of an item to be balanced by its functional use.

Moll did not start out as an unregenerate guttersnipe. At the book's start, Defoe is careful to portray her as the innocent lamb cast adrift in a sea of unscrupulous men. The world of Moll Flanders, the England of the 17th century, was not one designed to harbor any illusions that innocence could long remain that way in the face of ubiquitous lechery and poverty. Moll is seduced, then abandoned, and at the ripe age of 16,must fend for herself. The only coin that she retains to provide herself with the necessities of life is the one that she sits on.

MOLL FLANDERS is unique among fallen from virtue women tales in its structure and incessant theme that to survive in an immoral world, one must be more immoral than everyone else. The novel itself is not divided into chapters. It is simply one very long series of vignettes, extending over many years, that portray Moll as the most infamous flat character in English literature. Moll's story can be summarized thusly: Moll steals, Moll eludes the law, Moll has innumerable (and unnamed) children, Moll commits incest (unknowingly) with her brother, Moll gets caught and is imprisoned. Throughout all of this, Moll changes not a whit. Her primary defense against a very nearly nonexistent conscience is her powerful sense of rationalization. One day, she sees a young child with some valuables hanging about his clothes. She pickpockets them, telling herself that the loss of these trifles ought to alert his parents that they could just have easily has suffered the loss of that child. Moll glides through life, usually coming out on top. As she gains reknown for her ill-deeds, she takes the time to compare her lot with those other poverty-stricken women who chose a life of virtue over crime. Moll cackles at their foolishness. The only time in the novel that she shows any remorse occurs when she is finally caught. At Rhett Butler said to Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND, 'You are not sorry you committed wrong, but you are very sorry you got caught.'

The question that modern readers have to grapple with is the intent of Daniel Defoe in presenting a woman whom today we would call a whore-grifter. Despite the tight focus on Moll, all that we learn of her after 300 pages of whoring is that she enjoyed her life with a gusto and cared not a fig about the consequences to her or to anyone else. Morality, Defoe seems to imply, is infinitely elastic, and its ultimate use is to justify the taking of material objects that rightfully belong to others. Moll, then, is the ancestor of Madonna's 'Material Girl,' one who blithely assumes that the bill for immorality need never be paid. Perhaps Defoe's inner lesson about Moll is that this elasticity of morality does result in an inevitable, if unwanted, payoff after all.

Rating:
Summary: This book truly reflects the contemporary society
Review: It is surprising to read that women are seen as an object in exchange for money and that in order for women to move up the social ladder, beauty and a bit of intelligence are essential. Isn't it sad that it is in many ways still true for our society?

Rating:
Summary: unbelievable survival of a 16th century woman
Review: it's all about a woman who marries a lot of different men, steals to survive, and finally settles in virginia. during her pillaging years she dresses up as a man, goes under other names and is many a time near capture. She is the most wanted thief in Newgate, many people have been sent to jail because of her. This book is her own fervid recolletion of her memories.

Rating:
Summary: love it... she's wonderful...
Review: Ít's one of the best books I've ever read. Was forced to read it for school so my expektations were the lowest ever... She's a very strong women and I like the way she gets what she wants. She's not afraid to make a sacrifice or two to have things her way, though I don't like the way she abandonnes her children all the time...