Moll Flanders

Daniel Defoe, 1722

A woman recounts a precarious life in which money, respectability and survival are difficult to separate.

Read the book Contents

Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by Peter Dann.

Length: 1 chapters
Reading time: About 9 hr 32 min
Words: 136,136

About the book

Moll begins by withholding her real name, explaining that the records of Newgate and the Old Bailey already know too much about her. Her account returns to childhood and the insecurity of a life without dependable protection. Independence is a practical problem before it is an ideal.

Written as a personal history, the novel gives Moll room to explain, justify and reconsider her conduct. That intimate voice invites readers to weigh her resourcefulness alongside the pressures surrounding her, especially where respectable appearance and financial necessity pull in different directions.

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Daniel Defoe died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original author’s preface.