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The LainiBop Challenge
MOLL FLANDERS
DANIEL DEFOE
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* * * * * SPOILERS * * * * *
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This is
a book which I read back in college as part of my degree, after
finding it amongst a load of books at home I realised I couldn't
really remember any details of it, so there it found itself, on my To
Be Read Mountain.
Before
I start this review, I must note that in the last year I attempted to
read another Daniel Defoe novel, Robinson Crusoe, without much luck.
I got so infuriated with the book and the character that I had to
leave it unfinished. I can almost count on both hands how many times
that has happened to me in my life, I hate not finishing books, but
I will put them down if they do me wrong. Having said this, I was
sure that I had finished Moll Flanders some years ago, so thought I
would give it another shot.
Moll is
the daughter of a thief who went to Newgate prison while pregnant and
got a short reprieve by “pleading her belly”. After Moll was
born, she was left in the care of random people it seems and spent
the first few years of her life with gypsies before running away from
them. She was then taken in my a young woman who ran a type of
school for orphans and misfits and when the time came for Moll to
leave to find work, she begged to be allowed to stay and help some
more. Eventually Moll ends up working for a family who take her in.
She is a servant/nanny/and surrogate daughter it seems, and has the
benefit of being educated with the 2 daughters of the family.
However this could not last for long, as the 2 sons of the family
begin to fall in love with her. The eldest woos her with false
promises of marriage, while using her as his mistress and when the
younger claims that he is in love with her and wants to marry her
straight away, her virtue has already been taken. And so begins
Moll's life of crime, prostitution, and even polygamy.
The
life and world that Moll describes is completely alien to us now.
She talks a lot of trying to find a husband for example. She wants
to find a rich man to marry who will support her as she has never had
much money of her own. This is not uncommon, even now, but what was
strange to me is that all the men wanted was to find a rich wife to
support them also. Many of the men she found, had made money from
leasing land or an inheritance, and many of them didn't work. Moll
has to pretend that she is rich in order to find someone to marry
her, and because she doesn't want to be accused of lying to them, she
dresses in fancy clothes and implies that she is rich, so that when
they marry her and find out that she has no money, they cannot say
that she deceived them. Apparently Daniel Defoe was born Daniel Foe
and added the “aristocratic sounding De” to his name in order to
imply rich ancestors.
Throughout
her life, Moll has many husbands, and also many children. I'm not
sure if it was because the author was male or simply that that's the
type of character Moll is but she abandons children all over the
place, much like she herself was abandoned. She mentions her
children, as in to say, “I had 2 children with him” but then we
hear nothing more of them after this. We know that some of them, she
had to leave for various reasons, but even one which she talked of
having to find money to feed, was never mentioned after that. She
travels all over the place, but never talks of all the children and
where they are.
I'm not
sure how believeable Moll Flanders is. As it was written in 1722, I
suppose it could be realistic for the time, but there is a lot
contained within the pages which defy belief. Having said that, it
is a very entertaining read. You really get caught up in Molls life
and the opinions of the times too, where everything is a scandal and
your virtue is the most important thing you have as a young woman.
We see her ups and downs, we love her then hate her, we admire her
bravery then scorn her thievery. Moll is basically a woman who
having lost a fair chance at a good life early on, will now do
anything she needs to to survive.
Fancy a read? Find FREE ebooks below:
Project Gutenbers: Moll Flanders
Amazon: Moll Flanders
iTunes: Moll Flanders
Youtube: Film:
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders starring Alex Kingston
(1996)
(Note: NOT the Robin Wright version which is nothing like the original story
at all!)
SCORE 7/10
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Her To Be Read Challenge - The Countdown Begins!
Book 30 - ?
Book 29 - ?
Book 28 - Sexing the Cherries by Jeanette Winterson
Book 27 - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Book 26 - Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
Book 25 - Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Book 24 - From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne
Book 23 - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Book 22 - Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffery Archer
Book 21 - Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Book 19 - Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Book 18 - The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry
Book 17 - A Falcon for a Queen by Catherine Gaskin
Book 16 - The Marian Conspiracy by Graham Philips
Book 15 - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Book 14 - Mary, Mary by Julie Parsons
Book 13 - Glitz by Louise Bagshawe
Book 12 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Book 11 - Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Book 10 - New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos editor Ramsey Campbell
Book 08 - Glamour by Louise Bagshawe
Book 06 - The Blue Hour by Jefferson Parker
Book 05 - The Drifters - Jim Thompson
Book 04 - The Turn of the Screw - Henry James
Book 03 - Atonement - Ian McEwan
Book 02 - Waiting for Columbus - Thomas Trofimuk
Book 01 - Under the Dome - Stephen King
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