About this title: Daniel Defoe's 1722 novel about a spirited and oddly appealing ex-prostitute and thief, now reformed, is not only a disturbingly realistic look at London's underworld, but one of the first works of fiction to explore the interior consciousness of its main character.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: Laurel edition.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Dell, New York
Date Published: 1963
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. 1963 Dell Laurel paperback. NOT EX LIB! Clean, lightly tanned & still very flexible pages with light reading wear, creased spine, some edgewear, 1st few pages do open to spine, some cover rubbing/scuffing/creasing. Glued binding. 335 p. The most celebrated female rogue in English literature. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Doubleday & Co., Inc.
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. Signed by previous owner. Nice soft cover, lightly read, shelf wear to cover, light creases on spine, aging. read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Signed by previous owner. Trans paperback edition in very good condition. Daily SHipping. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. p.298 Topics 17th century; British Isles; Classics; England; English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; European; Fiction; Literary; Literary Criticism; Picaresque literature read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Signet Classics, New York
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780451524591ISBN:0451524594
Description: Good. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. The book is very solid with unmarked pages. The cover has minor shelf wear & moderate edge wear with sticker residue on the front and on the spine. read more
Description: Mass Market Paperback. Very Good-/As Issued No Jacket. Reprint. Corner crease, pages yellowing a bit, and a very slight musty smell. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Signet Classics, E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780451526335ISBN:0451526333
Description: Very Good. 0451526333 Mass market paperback, previously read used book in very good condition, may have slight worn corners and varying degre..._ read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Signet Classics, E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780451526335ISBN:0451526333
Description: Good. 0451526333 Mass market paperback, previously read used book in good condition, varying degrees of shelf wear, some spine creases, m..._ read more
Edition: Classic; English; Novel
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books, New York
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780553213287ISBN:0553213288
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Very good clean flat paperback with light general wear. pages clean and unmarked. read more
"A worthwhile read of DeFoe, and the mores' of the times. Can be tedious, and per the introduction of his justification for writing something considered, too resque, he didn't fulfill that self-requirement. You be the judge."
"One of my latest revelations regarding books is that I somehow need to pay my respects to the 17th century classics. That is, read some of the novels I should have read years ago, books most people read as teenagers or at least in college, where they (some of them) are mandatory. Having waltzed very skillfully among them when I needed to, because - blame it on taste - I was never ever attracted by picaresque novels, it's high time I did something about it.
So, ladies and gents, I give you Moll Flanders. Cheater, liar, thief, whore, irresponsible mother and incestuous woman all in one. How, in the end, knowing all these things about her and not agreeing with any, the reader still feels sympathy for her, it's all in Defoe's writing talent. Because somehow, during the never ending events in Moll's life, you kind of like her; despite the facts, she is still warm-hearted and kind, and you get the feeling she does what she does only because she has no other choice (and yes, I agree, in 17th century England being a widow with children and no income is not one of the brightest perspectives). I, for instance, was surprised to see how in each and every situation she found a way to overcome the problem, keeping herself out of prison, trusting the right people, moving into the right direction, placing her money in the right hands, ending in the right place, fully loaded. Because in life as we know it, things are never like this. It can work for two or three times, but eventually you're caught red handed, you're betrayed and left alone.
As hard as Defoe tried (did he?) to convince the readers that eventually she repented and felt sorry about the kind of life she had led, I'm not satisfied. Too obvious a happy ending for a woman who continued to live from the money she had stolen, even if her conscience was finally clean - finding one of her sons and eventually starting acting like a mother, when she was in her 60's.
So even if I found no particular pleasure in Defoe's style, I must appreciate the remarkable art with which he treats a subject like this."
"the person who was reading this used, 49 cent, copy of moll flanders before me stopped reading at page 26, judging by the abrupt cessation of circled words like "prattle", "would you were, sir", "brother fell", and "he would" i like to think about this person, and their busy pen. its so arbitrary - its not even words that might be unfamiliar to a moderately-literate reader. i tried to find a code in it "help, i am being held hostage by a mad librarian", but to no avail. almost every page has at least six circles or underlines and then suddenly - nothing. did the pen run out of ink? did they abandon moll flanders? did they fall out of a tree? its mysterious. what else is mysterious is moll flanders. she swans through this book, dripping babies from her body like a tree sheds leaves, stealing and whoring and manipulating men to keep her head above water and yet im not in love with her. how can this be? i mean, its a fine book, but i cant see falling in love with it or with her character. and honestly, i dont know what to make of the realization that if she had just stayed married to her brother in the first place, she would have avoided a whole lot of trouble and had a lovely son and a fruitful plantation. let this be a lesson to you: choose wisely; incest or a life of crime. there is no in-between."
"While the lack of chapter breaks still caused some difficulty (as in Robinson Crusoe) I found this narrative easier to follow. I found Moll to be a very sympathetic character, not nearly as wicked as she (and the society in which she lived) made her out to be. From the time she was born, the deck was stacked against her by a society which provided very few opportunities for women to support themselves; she was taken advantage of by unscrupulous men (yes, almost exclusively males). Twice husbands who would have been able to provide for her to some degree passed away leaving her with nothing. Another husband astonishingly turned out to be her half-brother - I mean, what are the odds?! She was so often alone and friendless. She mostly did the best she could with the curveballs she was thrown.
One part that didn't sit well with me, though, was her children. She had several children by her different husbands, several of them died, but excepting the one son in Virginia, we never find out what happened to those children! And that just kills me! She expressed her sorrow at parting from one (with her Lancashire husband), but other than that she seemed almost unemotional about her children until she meets up with her son/nephew in Virginia again."
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