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Loading... Moll Flandersby Daniel Defoe
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. The lack of chapters (a later development in English novel writing) poses a bit of a challenge, and there are spots where the book gets a bit tedious in recounting minutia of relationships. However, this book rewards readers with an interesting view on the rising middle class (dare I say bourgeoisie) and the intersection of raising capital to secure one's class position, gender relations, and the impacts on the human character. To what would you stoop if put in the situation of Moll or her many husbands, suitors, and friends? What do we inherit from a society structured in the manner we encounter in this novel? In what ways does our society mold our character as Moll's molds hers, and what do we make of this? This novel provoked quite a few questions like this, which in the end seems to me to be one of the main reasons we still read classics. I just wish that it had been a slightly more enjoyable read to go along with the provocation. (  ) dkmoore | Oct 21, 2009 |  Daniel Defoe engages the reader in a story which exposes the plight of women in 17th century England. Moll Flanders (a name used for disguise) lives a life of one who must/chooses to do whatever it takes to survive. Throughout the tale, she is the victim of misfortunes both of her own creating and not of her own creating. This is an excellent book, particularly for those readers who like period pieces. (  ) george1295 | Oct 15, 2009 | Defoe Complicates Ethics in Early Novels: Developing Moral Tolerance in 18th C London Daniel Defoe grapples with complex ethical issues earlier novelists had avoided by having Robison Crusoe and Moll Flanders suffer moral failures while still garnering our sympathy as readers. For More See Orato Review Below (  ) Tomhartley | Sep 23, 2009 | The 1722 story of a woman’s hard passage through life. Legendary author and book, but I found it dry going. Read July 2008 (  ) mbmackay | Aug 30, 2009 | This is a horrid, horrid, utterly boring book. (  ) TheBooknerd | Aug 20, 2009 | 
Defoe Complicates Ethics in Early Novels: Developing Moral Tolerance in 18th C. London
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The breasts, raised skirts, tumbling hair and heavy breathing on the small screen might catch you by surprise if you don't read the book carefully (as might Moll's abandonment of her children on more than one occasion). Unlike his near-contemporary John Cleland (_Fanny Hill_), Defoe was trying to keep out of jail, and so didn't dwell on the details of "correspondence" between Moll and her varied lovers. But on the page and on the screen, Moll comes across quite clearly as a woman who might bend, but refuses to break, and who is intent on having as good a life as she can get.
E. M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel considers Moll and her creator's art in some detail. While he finds much to criticize in Defoe's ability to plot (where did those last two children go, anyway?), he is as besotted with Moll as I am. Immoral? Sure -- but immortal, and never, ever dull. We hope at least a few of the viewers of the recent adaptation take a couple hours to discover the original, inimitable Moll Flanders.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:11 -0400)
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