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Moll Flanders Summary
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe chronicles the adventurous life of its eponymous protagonist, who, born in Newgate Prison, navigates a tumultuous path through 17th-century England and America. Through marriages, liaisons, and a turn to crime, Moll seeks security and prosperity, offering a candid exploration of morality, resilience, and the pursuit of self-determination.
Moll Flanders Excerpt
Short Summary: Born to a convicted mother in Newgate Prison, Moll Flanders strives for a better life through a series of marriages, relationships, and criminal endeavors, reflecting on themes of survival and morality in 17th-century society.
"My true name is so well known in the records or registers at Newgate, and in the Old Bailey, and there are some things of such consequence still depending there, relating to my particular conduct, that it is not to be expected I should set my name or the account of my family to this work; perhaps, after my death, it may be better known; at present, it would not be proper, nor not though a general pardon should be issued, even without exceptions and reserve of persons or crimes.
It is enough to tell you, that as some of my worst comrades, who are out of the way of doing me harm (having gone out of the world by the steps and the string, as I often expected to go), knew me by the name of Moll Flanders; so you may give me leave to speak of myself under that name till I dare own who I have been, as well as who I am.
I have been told, that in one of our neighbour nations, whether it be in France, or where else, I know not; they have an order from the king, that when any criminal is condemned, either to die, or to the galleys, or to be transported, if they leave any children, as such are generally unprovided for, by the poverty or forfeiture of their parents; so they are immediately taken into the care of the government, and put into an hospital called the House of Orphans, where they are bred up, clothed, fed, taught, and when fit to go out, are placed to trades, or to services, so as to be well able to provide for themselves by an honest, industrious behaviour.
Had this been the custom in our country, I had not been left a poor desolate girl without friends, without clothes, without help or helper, as was my fate; and by which I was not only exposed to very great distresses, even before I was capable either of understanding my case, or how to amend it; but brought into a course of life, scandalous in itself, and which in its ordinary course tended to the swift destruction both of soul and body.
But the case was otherwise here; my mother was convicted of felony for a certain petty theft scarce worth naming, (viz.) having an opportunity of borrowing three pieces of fine holland of a certain draper in Cheapside: the circumstances are too long to repeat, and I have heard them related so many ways, that I can scarce be certain which is the right account."
