Product Description
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Daniel Defoe is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Daniel Defoe then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.Amazon.com Review
The recent adaptation of Moll Flanders for Masterpiece Theater is abook-lover's dream: the dialogue and scene arrangement are closeenough to allow the viewer to follow along in the book.The libertiestaken with the tale are few (some years of childhood between thegypsies and the wealthy family are elided; Moll is Moll throughout thetale, rather than Mrs. Betty; Robert becomes Rowland, etc.) and thesets avoid the careless anachronism of the movie version releasedearlier this year.

The breasts, raised skirts, tumbling hair and heavy breathing on thesmall screen might catch you by surprise if you don't read the bookcarefully (as might Moll's abandonment of her children on more thanone occasion).Unlike his near-contemporary John Cleland (_FannyHill_), Defoe was trying to keep out of jail, and so didn't dwell onthe details of "correspondence" between Moll and her varied lovers.But on the page and on the screen, Moll comes across quite clearly asa woman who might bend, but refuses to break, and who is intent onhaving as good a life as she can get.

E. M. Forsterin Aspects of the Novelconsiders Moll and her creator's art in some detail.While he finds much to criticize in Defoe's ability to plot (where didthose last two children go, anyway?), he is as besotted with Moll as Iam.Immoral?Sure -- but immortal, and never, ever dull.We hope atleast a few of the viewers of the recent adaptation take a couplehours to discover the original, inimitable Moll Flanders. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (53)

Surprisingly enjoyable
As many other reviewers have noted, it takes some effort to deal with this books old english style of prose. But, what do you expect? The book was written several hundred years ago! Once you get used to it, this novel is really very interesting and just gets progressively better as it goes on. By the end you cant put it down, you just have to know what happens to Moll.I thought Defoe offered very perceptive insights into human nature in sometimes very amusing passages. The novel has this curious aspect in that throughout the novel Moll displays a deep degree of moral self-awareness but then she has this ability to essentially ignore the impact of her often outrageous behavior. I guess this was Defoe's point. We all have to rationalize our actions to some degree to make our way in an imperfect and often cruel world. You will cheer and abhor her at the same time but at least she wont bore you!

Romance rollercoaster!
Moll Flanders is one of the few 'classic' books I have read in which a MALE author parallels the thought of a woman as the narrator. Moll Flanders is the ultimate tribute to a woman out to make a name for herself in a world of poverty, protitution, and love, who eventually learns more about her own strengths than the lessons of any morals. Moll Flanders is an embodiment of feminism... but oddly enough is written by a male author-giving the text a female and male essence of love, twists, and, of course, misfortunes.

Sensational, Scandalous
Moll Flanders / 0-451-52633-3

Defoe's novel, Moll Flanders, one of the first true English novels follows the "true" story of a lower-class woman who - eventually - turns to a life of petty thievery and prostitution partly as a means to live, and partly as a means to a middle-class life of relative riches and ease.

This thin little novel is a fairly quick read and the story pacing moves at a quick clip as we read through the salacious and scandalous life of this matron is not particularly clever nor particularly beautiful, but she is persistent, dogged, and increasingly amoral enough to make a life for herself just above the level of extreme and desperate poverty. Through the course of her life, Moll takes several husbands, bears multiple children, and chooses to view her life with pride and detachment, rather than with the shame she 'ought' to feel. In this regard, Moll is perhaps the most modern of the historical novel characters, because she views the societal norms which would compel her to pious poverty with a jaundiced eye and recognizes that the 'shameful' things she does to survive, the gentry do on a much wider, if more socially acceptable, scale.

~ Ana Mardoll

Wondering how true to life she was..
I read this several years ago.Didn't have much of a problem with the writing style, but others might.

As a mom, I just couldn't get over the fact she gave birth to about 10 kids,didn't give a flying leap about any of them, and abandoned every single one of them at her earliest convenience.I have heard of a lot of REALLY bad mothers, but none that just walked away, never gave another thought to any of them - on about 6 different occasions.

My modern mind wants to guess she had reactive attachment disorder since she was abandoned herself, but of course she just may be the imagining of a man who didn't really care to write about a woman's relationships with her children.(Wikipedia says he had 8 kids by the same wife and 6 survived, so he should have known of the bond a woman has with her children).

It's an interesting book, but I can't fully recommend it as a story.I would recommend it for people interested in 17th and 18th century England and America.

Good, but not great literature
To fully understand and appreciate Moll Flanders you should have some understanding of the status of fiction at the time Daniel DeFoe was writing and some knowledge about the man himself.As Nancy Springer has indicated, the novel is an example of a "picaresque adventure," a style of writing that was popular at the time. These stories glorified a new kind of hero--the ordinary person, who engaged in a series of often wild and improbable events in exotic places. The picaresque rouge was a rebel against the remains of the feudal system with its hierarchy of human worth. Such novels featured a clever, strong-minded, low-born character who knew how to survive.What DeFoe did differently is to make his character a women and have her adventures take place largely in England.

The novel is also largely autobiographical. DeFoe himself experienced many financial ups and downs, yet he persevered. In fact it wasn't until he was 60 years old that he began writing novels and achieved some measure of fame and financial success. He spent time in Newgate prison and deeply in debt. He was also an outspoken political reformer who wrote more than 250 political pamphlets.

Having said the above, the novel still has its faults. One is that it is written in a continuous manner with no chapter breaks. While DeFoe may have been trying to say that time is continuous and that distinctions (such as hours, days, weeks, etc.) are mere fabrications, still readers like to have books broken down into chapters. A more serious flaw is the lack of names. Apart from her first husband there are virtually no names given to the characters. Even Moll herself is not identified by the title name until well into the book and even this name is not her actual name (which we never learn). Instead characters are identified in some impersonal way (my Lancashire husband, my governess, etc.) The lack of names makes it hard for the reader to engender any sympathy for Moll and the other personages in the book.Also the action is so fast paced that it flashes by like looking through a kaleidoscope, the scenes and action constantly shifting and changing. For example, within the first 100 pages Moll is married five times, has several children, goes to Virginia, finds her mother, etc.There is no time for the reader to reflect on the tragedies that befall her, especially given that they are told in a matter-of-fact manner.

The book can be divided into two parts. The first half deals with Moll's amorous life--her marriages and love affairs. The second part focuses primarily on her criminal activities. Both sections tell the story entirely from Moll's perspective. In many respects Moll is a match for Thackery's Becky Sharp. Both are low-born, both get positions in well-to-do families, both marry one of the sons in the family, both are attractive and quick witted, both scheme to get money and both have various adventures and misadventures. But Vanity Fair is written as a social commentary and Thackery uses the omnipotent story teller to advantage, even having him speak directly to the reader. DeFoe, by comparison, limits himself to having his protagonist say, in effect, now I did this, then I did that, then this happened, etc.

To give DeFoe his due, the book does provide a realistic and detailed account of life in England at that time.His description of Newgate prison is but one example. Perhaps Moll's attitude also reflected the times accurately. It can best be described as "a woman is nothing without a man and to get a man a woman must have money."Thus Moll spends the entire book pursuing both.But one can question how realistic Moll Flanders really is. She has a number of children, but seems to have little regard for them. Perhaps DeFoe, needing to rid Moll of encumbrances such as children in order to engage her in so many adventures, gave her what is an unnatural attitude for a mother. In the end he does reunite her with a son, but we should note that her motivation, at least at first, is financial not familial.

All in all, the book is worth reading, but it is far from great literature.
... Read more

Product Description
The complete works of Daniel Defoe, including Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, with active table of contents:

Atalantis Major
The Complete English Tradesman
The Consolidator
Dickory Cronke
An Essay Upon Projects
Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders
From London to Land's End
The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
History of the Plague in London
The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard
A Journal of the Plague Year
The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
Memoirs of a Cavalier
Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins
Military Memoirs of Capt. George Carleton
Of Captain Misson
Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722
A Vindication of the Press
... Read more

Product Description
Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year is an extraordinary account of the devastation and human suffering inflicted on the city of London by the Great Plague of 1665. Purporting to be an eye-witness, Defoe's fictional narrator recounts in vivid detail the rising death toll and the transformation of the city as its citizens flee and those who remain live in fear and despair. Above all it is the stories of appalling human suffering and grief that give Defoe's extraordinary fiction its compelling historical veracity. The lively Introduction relates the Journal to Defoe's best-known work, Robinson Crusoe, and draws on recent research into the publishing environment of the first edition. It considers the portrayal of London, depicted by Defoe as it was before the Great Fire, and to the book's device of fiction masquerading as fact. This edition also includes comprehensive explanatory notes, a map of Defoe's London, and a complete topographical index that enables the reader to track the Journal's complex references to London's streets, churches, alleyways, and prisons both before and after the Great Fire of 1666. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Did not arrive as quickly as I had hoped
I selected rush delivery because I needed this book for class, but it took a regular amount of time to get here. The product was in good shape.

A convincing fictional diary of the Plague of 1665
Thanks to 20th century medical and public health advances, we now know how to prevent, stem, and treat most infectious diseases. Though a few folks may still recall the flu epidemic of 1918, which cost 20 millions lives worldwide and a half million in the United States alone, for most of us living outside the Third World, fear of epidemic has become largely a thing of the past.

But if you wish to glimpse daily life under the threat of impending death by disease (without actually being threatened by it), along with the accompanying grief, despair, depravity, kindness, and courage, Daniel Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" can take you there.

However, Defoe`s classic work is neither a journal nor of the plague year. Rather, it consists of an odd and hardly chronological collection of anecdotes, statistics, and ruminations written by the author of Moll Flanders some fifty years after the Plague of 1665 (when he was but a child of four). While pretending to be a first person eyewitness account of the epidemic, the Journal is in fact convincingly realistic fiction. The author has wisely created a narrator and a literary vehicle that powerfully portrays 17th century London and the agonies of an epidemic that killed more than 100,000 in the city.

Early on, Defoe establishes credibility for his fictional construct by quoting detailed figures (seemingly culled from official documents) on the growing death tolls as the Black Death spread across London. Further, throughout the book he documents the legal measures, such as quarantining households, and describes the medical endeavors to fight the disease and its spread. But more important, having once persuaded the reader of the authenticity of his tale, Defoe gets under the skin of the plague by showing the human suffering and drama it created.

He accomplishes this through his fictional narrator, a bachelor merchant who saunters about London hearing cries of pain, listening to tales of death, observing grief-deranged survivors roaming the streets, and even visiting the mass graves where, under the cover of night, death carts dump their grisly loads.

Also, we are privy to the deliberations of our moralistic but pragmatic narrator--on whether or not to flee London with his brother's family, on predestination and free will, on the quackery and skullduggery that fed on fear and ignorance. This imaginative character's active, intelligent, and detailed surveillance of the epidemic places us in the streets of London and creates a work of lasting vitality.

Through him we see the people's susceptibility to omens, religious superstition, prophets of doom, and astrologers; to quacks, charlatans, and fortune-tellers. We glimpse the duplicity and cowardice of the government and ruling class, who frequently fled London to save their own skins while abandoning their servants to penury and possible infection. We view mountebanks fleecing desperate families, nurses murdering and robbing their lingering patients, and the sick taking their own lives to save themselves a last few hours of pain. But we also are shown acts of great kindness, courage, charity, and love, as well as human ingenuity in service of a will to survive in the face of seeming doom.

Ultimately, the book is perhaps not so much about the plague as about human nature, of which Defoe is a keen observer, showing us that 17th century Londoners are not much different from ourselves. .

But as gloomy as this subject matter may seem, he can present it with a light and often-humorous touch, as in his story of the drunken piper. The beggar had passed out on the street after given an uncustomarily large amount to drink. A second man, thinking the piper a corpse, laid a plague victim beside him for the death cart to retrieve. The piper did not revive until about to pushed into a mass grave. He called out, "Where am I?" The sexton replied, "Why you are in the dead-cart, and we are going to bury you." The piper then asked, "But I ain't dead though, am I?"

Defoe presents the enigmatic narrator as both deeply affected by the suffering and aloof. He roams about London and its environs with seemingly little concern for his own well-being, at times viewing the horrific scenes with passion and compassion, and at other moments from a distant, Archimedean point of intellectual detachment. Along the way we get the narrator's (and, we suspect, the author's) views on religion, criminal justice, public health measures, medicine, government, and economics.

The pragmatism of Defoe's narrator shows through in his discussion of the last. Virtually all commerce came to a halt in the months when the plague ruled. Ships did not dock, shops closed, construction stopped, and economic life was put on hold while death profited. Defoe shows us the repercussions of this economic death--not only the hardship, the admirable efforts of certain government officials to help the needy, and the charity of many--but also how it helped stem the spread of the disease by reducing contact among people.

In the end, it's Defoe's details that win out, making this fictional account read as the intimate first-person portrayal it purports to be: the 200,000 pet dogs and cats rounded up and slaughtered to help prevent the epidemic's spread; the infection and quick death of infants who fed at the breasts of their diseased mothers; the public whippings of those who stole from the dead; the excruciating pain of the swellings brought on by the bubonic plague and the perhaps even more painful attempts by physicians to break the tumors with hot irons. Such details as these, perhaps too realistically rendered for the squeamish, give "A Journal of the Plague Year" an irresistible authority.

However, the whole conceit might have fallen flat had it not been crafted with such a deft, and I think, sly, touch. Defoe's language never flies toward hyperbole, but is grounded in seemingly careful observation--even when the narrator is deeply moved. Defoe's slyness is evident in his narrator often claiming faulty memory or lack of knowledge--"whether he lived or died I don't remember"--which augments the verisimilitude of his highly creative and still haunting work.

Entertaining Historical Work Marred by Lack of Proofreading
I have long wanted to read this classic account of the Black Death in London. Couldn't believe all the typos, which a notice at the beginning attributes to OCR--the pages are scanned rather than typed. The publisher's excuse is they need to keep costs down.Like they couldn't find a graduate student in English or History who wanted to pick up a bit of money proofreading?I would rather pay more for a properly edited book.

Why Teens Should Read This
1.Defoe is fascinating biography subject:
Ian Watt remarked that Defoe "was a hard man who led a hard life: raised as a Dissenter in the London of the Great Plague and Great Fire; enduring Newgate prison and the pillory in bankrupt middle age; working as a secret agent and a scandalous journalist until imprisoned again for debt and treason. Defoe died old, and so may be accounted as a survivor, but he had endured a good share of reality, and his novels reflect that endurance."

2. Observing and personalizing "real world" problems can inspire you to read and enjoy related literature. Thank G-d the H1N1 Flu causes mild to moderate symptoms despite its fierce contagiousness. However, I'm sure most of your mothers and others have made anxiety ridden phone calls to the pediatrician. We live in a Global Village. How long is it before one rural Chinese farmer falls ill and China Air cancels flights out of Beijing. Even the Plague, today having a mere 15% mortality rate down from the Medieval high of 75% can still wreak havoc. And it is a fact that the recent completion of the Kinshasa Highway enabled the transmission of AIDS epidemic throughout Africa. Is it so far-fetched?Someone collapses in Cape Town, schools close across Europe, ports are inspected along the Atlantic shore, riots break out surrounding Kaiser-Permanente, Japanese civilians receive face masks from their government... DeFoe's London is a microcosm of our world.

3. In order for you to like reading, you have to be exposed to a variety of genres to help discover your own interests. The Journal of the Plague Year is a great introduction to Historical Fiction, or even Literary Journalism-- even if it was written so early that the genre would not yet be coined for a few hundred years. After all, Defoe is credited with being one of the earliest innovators of the novel itself. I personally love the genre, it makes me fell like I'm time traveling, sans jet lag. Historical fiction by the way, is also popular genre for mini-series, HBO is particularly good for shows like Deadwood, Rome, John Adams, and The Tudors.

Why Teens Should Read This
1.Defoe is fascinating biography subject:
Ian Watt remarked that Defoe "was a hard man who led a hard life: raised as a Dissenter in the London of the Great Plague and Great Fire; enduring Newgate prison and the pillory in bankrupt middle age; working as a secret agent and a scandalous journalist until imprisoned again for debt and treason. Defoe died old, and so may be accounted as a survivor, but he had endured a good share of reality, and his novels reflect that endurance."

2. Observing and personalizing "real world" problems can inspire you to read and enjoy related literature. Thank G-d the H1N1 Flu causes mild to moderate symptoms despite its fierce contagiousness. However, I'm sure most of your mothers and others have made anxiety ridden phone calls to the pediatrician. We live in a Global Village. How long is it before one rural Chinese farmer falls ill and China Air cancels flights out of Beijing. Even the Plague, today having a mere 15% mortality rate down from the Medieval high of 75% can still wreak havoc. And it is a fact that the recent completion of the Kinshasa Highway enabled the transmission of AIDS epidemic throughout Africa. Is it so far-fetched?Someone collapses in Cape Town, schools close across Europe, ports are inspected along the Atlantic shore, riots break out surrounding Kaiser-Permanente, Japanese civilians receive face masks from their government... DeFoe's London is a microcosm of our world.

3. In order for you to like reading, you have to be exposed to a variety of genres to help discover your own interests. The Journal of the Plague Year is a great introduction to Historical Fiction, or even Literary Journalism-- even if it was written so early that the genre would not yet be coined for a few hundred years. After all, Defoe iscredited with being one of the earliest innovators of the novel itself. I personally love the genre, it makes me fell like I'm time traveling, sans jet lag. Historical fiction by the way, is also popular genre for mini-series, HBO is particularly good for shows like Deadwood, Rome, John Adams, and The Tudors. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
SynopsisDaniel Defoe was an innovative writer whose prose works in the early eighteenth century helped to revolutionize the novel as a literary form. Steeped in satire and full of trenchant social and political criticism, Defoe's novels open a fascinating window onto the time and place where they were written, even as they abound with entertainment for the modern reader.This literary omnibus features five of Defoe's best-known works, among them his masterpiece, Robinson Crusoe and its sequel, The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Included as well are Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders, and the historical novel A Journal of the Plague Year, all of which continue to influence the way we read and write fiction today. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1665, the Great Plague swept through London, claiming nearly 100,000 lives. In A Journal of the Plague Year, Defoe vividly chronicles the progress of the epidemic. We follow his fictional narrator through a city transformed-the streets and alleyways deserted, the houses of death with crosses daubed on their doors, the dead-carts on their way to the pits-and encounter the horrified citizens of the city, as fear, isolation, and hysteria take hold. The shocking immediacy of Defoe's description of plague-racked London makes this one of the most convincing accounts of the Great Plague ever written. ... Read more

Product Description
Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on standardized tests, Webster's paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this edition of The Life, Adventures, and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe was edited for students who are actively building their vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT¿, SAT¿, AP¿ (Advanced Placement¿), GRE¿, LSAT¿, GMAT¿ or similar examinations.
PSAT¿ is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT¿ is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE¿, AP¿ and Advanced Placement¿ are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT¿ is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT¿ is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Very accurate descriptions

This is a great story of adventure, not just at sea, but across the width of the African continent. The geographic details given in the book can still be traced on modern maps.

Real Pyrates
DeFoe brings the lives of the classic era of pyrates to life.Men like Low, really evil, Teach, not a nice guy, Misson, a utopian, Bartholomew Roberts, cutthroat, come to life.He must have attended the trials in England of some of the pyrates and reports their stories in a lively fashion.The actions of the pyrates were well known to the merchants in London and the cause of great concern.These men killed a lot of people and the English navy hanged most of them, except for the scores killed in battle(like Black Bart and Blackbeard), and the exceptional man who retired.These pyrates disrupted commerce around the world and left many innocent merchantmen dead or bankrupt.
This is an interesting read for people who want the true story.

Basic Defoe
If you have read some of Defoe's more popular works, like Robinson Crusoe or Moll Flanders, you know that, while entertaining, his works are not necessarily page turners. The style of this story is a first person narrative of two major adventures of the main character, Bob Singleton.

The first tale is that of an improbable trek by a crowd of failed mutineers and malcontents across the continent of Africa, east to west. The story is replete with the usual features of deepest, darkest Africa: elephant graveyards, great deserts, huge lakes, rivers running with gold and native tribes with strange customs.

The second tale is a wildly successful pirate cruise of the classic regions including the Caribbean, Madagascar and Spice Islands. The story is again somewhat improbable in that the author, early on, inserts a Quaker doctor into the crew and uses him as the voice of moderation and sanity in the crew, tempering their actions.

Overall the effect is not unappealing or without merit. Defoe does a good job of providing a readable story, the style is dated and makes for a slower read, although still entertaining. I wouldn't look for any great insight into the life of pirates, although Defoe seems to have a reasonable knowledge of the sailing of wooden ships. P-)

Basic Defoe
If you have read some of Defoe's more popular works, like Robinson Crusoe or Moll Flanders, you know that, while entertaining, his works are not necessarily page turners. The style of this story is a first person narrative of two major adventures of the main character, Bob Singleton.

The first tale is that of an improbable trek by a crowd of failed mutineers and malcontents across the continent of Africa, east to west. The story is replete with the usual features of deepest, darkest Africa: elephant graveyards, great deserts, huge lakes, rivers running with gold and native tribes with strange customs.

The second tale is a wildly successful pirate cruise of the classic regions including the Caribbean, Madagascar and Spice Islands. The story is again somewhat improbable in that the author, early on, inserts a Quaker doctor into the crew and uses him as the voice of moderation and sanity in the crew, tempering their actions.

Overall the effect is not unappealing or without merit. Defoe does a good job of providing a readable story, the style is dated and makes for a slower read, although still entertaining. I wouldn't look for any great insight into the life of pirates, although Defoe seems to have a reasonable knowledge of the sailing of wooden ships. P-)

Basic Defoe
If you have read some of Defoe's more popular works, like Robinson Crusoe or Moll Flanders, you know that, while entertaining, his works are not necessarily page turners. The style of this story is a first person narrative of two major adventures of the main character, Bob Singleton.

The first tale is that of an improbable trek by a crowd of failed mutineers and malcontents across the continent of Africa, east to west. The story is replete with the usual features of deepest, darkest Africa: elephant graveyards, great deserts, huge lakes, rivers running with gold and native tribes with strange customs.

The second tale is a wildly successful pirate cruise of the classic regions including the Caribbean, Madagascar and Spice Islands. The story is again somewhat improbable in that the author, early on, inserts a Quaker doctor into the crew and uses him as the voice of moderation and sanity in the crew, tempering their actions.

Overall the effect is not unappealing or without merit. Defoe does a good job of providing a readable story, the style is dated and makes for a slower read, although still entertaining. I wouldn't look for any great insight into the life of pirates, although Defoe seems to have a reasonable knowledge of the sailing of wooden ships. P-) ... Read more

Product Description
Immensely readable history by the author of Robinson Crusoe incorporates the author’s celebrated flair for journalistic detail, and represents the major source of information about piracy in the early 18th century. Defoe recounts the daring and bloody deeds of such outlaws as Edward Teach (alias Blackbeard), Captain Kidd, Mary Read, Anne Bonny,many others. New Introduction provides insights into the origins and significance of this important historical work. Commentary and Notes. Indexes.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Foundational
The most authoritative edition of the foundational book on piracy.There is no other single work on piracy as important as this contemporary history.It was originally published in 1724 at the close of the "Golden Age of Piracy" in the west.The accompanying footnotes, introduction, and background materials are most useful.

A General History of the Pyrates
A General History of the Pyrates is good reading!Great history on famous pirates!

Fun
This book is written in a different kind of English than we what are used to. As such, this book is amazing. Filled to the brim with pirate information, boat information, etc, this is a good book for anyone who really is interested in pirates.
For those who are interested in pirates purely at a humorous level, this isn't the book you should go with. This is packed with real information in older English, and is really intended for those who wish to know more about pirates and how they lived.

This book helped my understanding of pirates greatly! I recommend to anyone who is interested in trying to know more about those scalawags of the sea.

Daniel Defoe vs Captain Charles Johnson
I compared this book with the pirate history published by Captain Charles Johnson.Daniel Defoe is definitely Captain Johnson.The one dissimilarity in the History of the pirate Gow is Johnson says he is John Smith alias Gow, while Daniel Defoe calls him the pirate Gow aka Smith.Gow is derived from the Erse name Gobha which translates to Blacksmith or Smith.So both version are in fact correct.But why the difference?Maybe editorial?

"The" history of Pirates
"Under the Black Flag", and all the rest of the pirate history books used this one as their basic reference. It's a lot of material, and took me several months to read as I'd read single captain's history before turning the lights out for the night. The stories are not watered down, there is enough murder, mayhem, robbery, thuggery, and general bad treatment of one person against another to fill years of "Pirates of the XXXX" movies with Johnny Depp scripts.

I did like this book, even though after about the 200th captain's adventure its sort of repetitive narrative. The other interesting thing was that amid this culture of mayhem there was a strong democratic theme. Captains and bosun's are elected positions on most of the boats! Colonies elect a "governor", they have jury trials to settle disputes and yet the economy revolves around ripping off passing merchant boats.

As for whether "Captain Johnson" or "Daniel Defoe" wrote the text, I can't tell. But it doesn't matter, there are no copyright royalties to be paid to the author at this point. The stories are just as good. Anyone who is really interested in Pirates would enjoy this book. (Although I got my copy from the public library.) I especially found the history of Annie Bonny and Mary Reed to be absolute soap opera story. History is stranger than fiction.

(Oh and read Richard Zack's book on Captain Kidd, Defoe got it wrong, and Zack's found the original documents to explain what really happened.) Zack's book is easier to read too. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

English Non-fiction Cast Away by Puritans - a novel idea
This is one of my favorite books. I like the way the story begins like the surf. Successive waves lap the pages as the story is told and then retold. I like the prominence of Providence. I like the admonition of virtue. I like the layers of irony found in a story whose fictional protagonist warns the reader of the vices which landed him in the calamitous situations of the story that interested the reader enough to read the story in the first place. Perhaps someday keeping the commandments will be as compelling a story as breaking them is.

It is nice that the rest of the Crusoe "trilogy" is getting a little easier to find... I haven't read the third, pseudopigraphical one yet.
2. The Farther Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe: Being The Second And Last Part Of His Life, And Of The Strange, Surprising Account Of His Travels Round Three Parts Of The Globe
3. Robinson Crusoe; Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, With His Vision of the Angelic World

A surprisingly readable 300 year-old adventure, though the early 18th century evidently lacked editors
The name "Robinson Crusoe" readily conjures up images of a sad castaway on a desert island, who after years of solitude comes up a man's footprint in the sand. But in reading Daniel Defoe's novel of 1719, I was surprised how different the work is from its common stereotype. Not until about 50 pages in does Crusoe end up a castaway, having before hand some misadventures as a young sailor. Instead of washing up on his island with just the clothes on his back, he in fact is able to get a great many useful tools and implements from his still intact wreck. And the man's footprint, instead of being the sign of another Crusoe subsequently encounters, is just a sign that some cannibals from the mainland visit the island on occassion.

All in all ROBINSON CRUSOE is an entertaining novel, one with much adventure and intrigue. One gets a lot of pleasure from reading of how Crusoe turns the basic furnishings of the island to his own use, having by the end of his confinement there such things as cheese, three houses, two canoes, and pottery. ROBINSON CRUSOE is also an interesting portrait of the times, for it was much influenced by popular attitudes of the early 1700s. Crusoe occasionally voices his dislike of the Spaniards, their atrocities in the Americas, and their Roman Catholic religion. But Defoe is hardly more charitable to the Native Americans, whose ignorance and godless depravity Crusoe deplores constantly.

To criticize a 300 year-old classic might be a silly exercise, but I doubt many readers will find this novel an elegantly crafted work. It's repetitive, for one. How many times do we need to read that Crusoe is reluctant to kill the maneaters? And the writer didn't seem to know when to stop, for after Crusoe's return to civilization we get an unnecessary battle with wolves in the woods of France. No wonder that the novel has so often circulated in abridgement.

I read this book in the Penguin Popular Classics edition, ISBN 0140623154, which I would recommend if you just want some reading material without making a permanent addition to your library. It is printed on poor quality paper, but is priced quite low. It has no notes or commentary, but you really don't need them. Indeed, I'm surprised how smoothly readable ROBINSON CRUSOE is considering that it was written in the English of 300 years ago (even later works like TRISTRAM SHANDY present more of a challenge), and I'd even recommend it to a young person wanting just a fun adventure story. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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Bodleian Library (Oxford)

N018266

Anonymous. By Daniel Defoe.Also issued as part of: 'A collection of the best English poetry, by several hands', London, 1717.The final leaf contains an advertisement for books printed by H. Hills.

London : printed [by H. Hills] in the year, 1708. 15,[1]p. ; 8° ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Did not arrive as quickly as I had hoped
I selected rush delivery because I needed this book for class, but it took a regular amount of time to get here. The product was in good shape.

A convincing fictional diary of the Plague of 1665
Thanks to 20th century medical and public health advances, we now know how to prevent, stem, and treat most infectious diseases. Though a few folks may still recall the flu epidemic of 1918, which cost 20 millions lives worldwide and a half million in the United States alone, for most of us living outside the Third World, fear of epidemic has become largely a thing of the past.

But if you wish to glimpse daily life under the threat of impending death by disease (without actually being threatened by it), along with the accompanying grief, despair, depravity, kindness, and courage, Daniel Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" can take you there.

However, Defoe`s classic work is neither a journal nor of the plague year. Rather, it consists of an odd and hardly chronological collection of anecdotes, statistics, and ruminations written by the author of Moll Flanders some fifty years after the Plague of 1665 (when he was but a child of four). While pretending to be a first person eyewitness account of the epidemic, the Journal is in fact convincingly realistic fiction. The author has wisely created a narrator and a literary vehicle that powerfully portrays 17th century London and the agonies of an epidemic that killed more than 100,000 in the city.

Early on, Defoe establishes credibility for his fictional construct by quoting detailed figures (seemingly culled from official documents) on the growing death tolls as the Black Death spread across London. Further, throughout the book he documents the legal measures, such as quarantining households, and describes the medical endeavors to fight the disease and its spread. But more important, having once persuaded the reader of the authenticity of his tale, Defoe gets under the skin of the plague by showing the human suffering and drama it created.

He accomplishes this through his fictional narrator, a bachelor merchant who saunters about London hearing cries of pain, listening to tales of death, observing grief-deranged survivors roaming the streets, and even visiting the mass graves where, under the cover of night, death carts dump their grisly loads.

Also, we are privy to the deliberations of our moralistic but pragmatic narrator--on whether or not to flee London with his brother's family, on predestination and free will, on the quackery and skullduggery that fed on fear and ignorance. This imaginative character's active, intelligent, and detailed surveillance of the epidemic places us in the streets of London and creates a work of lasting vitality.

Through him we see the people's susceptibility to omens, religious superstition, prophets of doom, and astrologers; to quacks, charlatans, and fortune-tellers. We glimpse the duplicity and cowardice of the government and ruling class, who frequently fled London to save their own skins while abandoning their servants to penury and possible infection. We view mountebanks fleecing desperate families, nurses murdering and robbing their lingering patients, and the sick taking their own lives to save themselves a last few hours of pain. But we also are shown acts of great kindness, courage, charity, and love, as well as human ingenuity in service of a will to survive in the face of seeming doom.

Ultimately, the book is perhaps not so much about the plague as about human nature, of which Defoe is a keen observer, showing us that 17th century Londoners are not much different from ourselves. .

But as gloomy as this subject matter may seem, he can present it with a light and often-humorous touch, as in his story of the drunken piper. The beggar had passed out on the street after given an uncustomarily large amount to drink. A second man, thinking the piper a corpse, laid a plague victim beside him for the death cart to retrieve. The piper did not revive until about to pushed into a mass grave. He called out, "Where am I?" The sexton replied, "Why you are in the dead-cart, and we are going to bury you." The piper then asked, "But I ain't dead though, am I?"

Defoe presents the enigmatic narrator as both deeply affected by the suffering and aloof. He roams about London and its environs with seemingly little concern for his own well-being, at times viewing the horrific scenes with passion and compassion, and at other moments from a distant, Archimedean point of intellectual detachment. Along the way we get the narrator's (and, we suspect, the author's) views on religion, criminal justice, public health measures, medicine, government, and economics.

The pragmatism of Defoe's narrator shows through in his discussion of the last. Virtually all commerce came to a halt in the months when the plague ruled. Ships did not dock, shops closed, construction stopped, and economic life was put on hold while death profited. Defoe shows us the repercussions of this economic death--not only the hardship, the admirable efforts of certain government officials to help the needy, and the charity of many--but also how it helped stem the spread of the disease by reducing contact among people.

In the end, it's Defoe's details that win out, making this fictional account read as the intimate first-person portrayal it purports to be: the 200,000 pet dogs and cats rounded up and slaughtered to help prevent the epidemic's spread; the infection and quick death of infants who fed at the breasts of their diseased mothers; the public whippings of those who stole from the dead; the excruciating pain of the swellings brought on by the bubonic plague and the perhaps even more painful attempts by physicians to break the tumors with hot irons. Such details as these, perhaps too realistically rendered for the squeamish, give "A Journal of the Plague Year" an irresistible authority.

However, the whole conceit might have fallen flat had it not been crafted with such a deft, and I think, sly, touch. Defoe's language never flies toward hyperbole, but is grounded in seemingly careful observation--even when the narrator is deeply moved. Defoe's slyness is evident in his narrator often claiming faulty memory or lack of knowledge--"whether he lived or died I don't remember"--which augments the verisimilitude of his highly creative and still haunting work.

Entertaining Historical Work Marred by Lack of Proofreading
I have long wanted to read this classic account of the Black Death in London. Couldn't believe all the typos, which a notice at the beginning attributes to OCR--the pages are scanned rather than typed. The publisher's excuse is they need to keep costs down.Like they couldn't find a graduate student in English or History who wanted to pick up a bit of money proofreading?I would rather pay more for a properly edited book.

Why Teens Should Read This
1.Defoe is fascinating biography subject:
Ian Watt remarked that Defoe "was a hard man who led a hard life: raised as a Dissenter in the London of the Great Plague and Great Fire; enduring Newgate prison and the pillory in bankrupt middle age; working as a secret agent and a scandalous journalist until imprisoned again for debt and treason. Defoe died old, and so may be accounted as a survivor, but he had endured a good share of reality, and his novels reflect that endurance."

2. Observing and personalizing "real world" problems can inspire you to read and enjoy related literature. Thank G-d the H1N1 Flu causes mild to moderate symptoms despite its fierce contagiousness. However, I'm sure most of your mothers and others have made anxiety ridden phone calls to the pediatrician. We live in a Global Village. How long is it before one rural Chinese farmer falls ill and China Air cancels flights out of Beijing. Even the Plague, today having a mere 15% mortality rate down from the Medieval high of 75% can still wreak havoc. And it is a fact that the recent completion of the Kinshasa Highway enabled the transmission of AIDS epidemic throughout Africa. Is it so far-fetched?Someone collapses in Cape Town, schools close across Europe, ports are inspected along the Atlantic shore, riots break out surrounding Kaiser-Permanente, Japanese civilians receive face masks from their government... DeFoe's London is a microcosm of our world.

3. In order for you to like reading, you have to be exposed to a variety of genres to help discover your own interests. The Journal of the Plague Year is a great introduction to Historical Fiction, or even Literary Journalism-- even if it was written so early that the genre would not yet be coined for a few hundred years. After all, Defoe is credited with being one of the earliest innovators of the novel itself. I personally love the genre, it makes me fell like I'm time traveling, sans jet lag. Historical fiction by the way, is also popular genre for mini-series, HBO is particularly good for shows like Deadwood, Rome, John Adams, and The Tudors.

Why Teens Should Read This
1.Defoe is fascinating biography subject:
Ian Watt remarked that Defoe "was a hard man who led a hard life: raised as a Dissenter in the London of the Great Plague and Great Fire; enduring Newgate prison and the pillory in bankrupt middle age; working as a secret agent and a scandalous journalist until imprisoned again for debt and treason. Defoe died old, and so may be accounted as a survivor, but he had endured a good share of reality, and his novels reflect that endurance."

2. Observing and personalizing "real world" problems can inspire you to read and enjoy related literature. Thank G-d the H1N1 Flu causes mild to moderate symptoms despite its fierce contagiousness. However, I'm sure most of your mothers and others have made anxiety ridden phone calls to the pediatrician. We live in a Global Village. How long is it before one rural Chinese farmer falls ill and China Air cancels flights out of Beijing. Even the Plague, today having a mere 15% mortality rate down from the Medieval high of 75% can still wreak havoc. And it is a fact that the recent completion of the Kinshasa Highway enabled the transmission of AIDS epidemic throughout Africa. Is it so far-fetched?Someone collapses in Cape Town, schools close across Europe, ports are inspected along the Atlantic shore, riots break out surrounding Kaiser-Permanente, Japanese civilians receive face masks from their government... DeFoe's London is a microcosm of our world.

3. In order for you to like reading, you have to be exposed to a variety of genres to help discover your own interests. The Journal of the Plague Year is a great introduction to Historical Fiction, or even Literary Journalism-- even if it was written so early that the genre would not yet be coined for a few hundred years. After all, Defoe iscredited with being one of the earliest innovators of the novel itself. I personally love the genre, it makes me fell like I'm time traveling, sans jet lag. Historical fiction by the way, is also popular genre for mini-series, HBO is particularly good for shows like Deadwood, Rome, John Adams, and The Tudors. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
Since this little book appeared in print, it has had no less than three answers, and fresh attacks are daily expected from the powers of Grub- street; but should threescore antagonists more arise, unless they say more to the purpose than the forementioned, they shall not tempt me to reply.
... Read more

Product Description
On the evening of November 26, 1703, a hurricane from the north Atlantic hammered into Britain: it remains the worst storm the nation has ever experienced. Eyewitnesses saw cows thrown into trees and windmills ablaze from the friction of their whirling sails—and some 8,000 people lost their lives. For Defoe, bankrupt and just released from prison for his "seditious" writings, the storm struck during one of his bleakest moments. But it also furnished him with material for his first book, and in this powerful depiction of suffering and survival played out against a backdrop of natural devastation we can trace the outlines of Defoe’s later masterpieces, A Journal of the Plague Year and Robinson Crusoe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Interesting, added value makes this public domain material worth buying
From the description in Works of Daniel Defoe. (30+ Works). Includes Robinson Crusoe, Dickory Cronke, Moll Flanders, Roxana, A Journal of the Plague Year, The Life Adventures ... the Famous Captain Singleton and more (mobi), The Storm is not included, and any free versions you'll find elsewhere won't include everything in this Penguin version. The book consists of three parts, one of which has never been available in book form before Penguin did it. In addition, there's a great introductory section which explains Defoe's writing style, his purpose in writing these particular works, interesting biographical information, and some general information about British society at the time. Having this context makes Defoe's actual work easier to understand, if you aren't used to an 18th century writing style. There's also a suggested book list for further reading which looks helpful. I haven't been able to plow through all of Defoe's version (it can be rather repetitive), but I wouldn't mind finding out more about the storm itself from a modern perspective.

I subtracted one star for a formatting problem: In the introductory section, there was a paragraph that kept repeating between new paragraphs about 4 or 5 times. Not a biggie in itself, but it makes you wonder if there are other less obvious problems in the main part of the book. Having never read this before, I don't know if anything else is missing, out of order, or just mixed up. I'm willing to pay $9.99 when it's warranted, but I'd like to be sure I'm getting something that's proofread as well as the print version.

An hurricane in Britain ..strange but real
It was the evening of 26 November 1703 when a still powerful hurricane that crossed all the atlantic was about to hit Britain. Life was as usual althought climate had been very peculiar days before, with strong winds from the south. It was the time when the cathedral of St Paul was being reconstructed and it was the time of the very well known fiction writer, Daniel Defoe. In this, one of his first works, he provide a serie of accounts of the event from several sources, several stories of how this dreadful storm hit people's towns, houses and ships. 'Tis interesting to note that chimneys were the major killers in houses and that lots of trees were also lost, especially elms. People didn't blame climate change, too much C02 in the air or anything else, but God's fury.

What attracted me to this book was the very unique case, when an "extratropical hurricane" (not tropical), likely originated in the atlantic east of florida, diverted its path and managed to cross the whole Atlantic to reach Britain with such strong force, knowing that those waters in the north atlantic are very cold. A strange phenomena indeed, and an event printed in history by a great writer of the time, Daniel Defoe. Part of his life is depicted in the introduction chapter of the book and to tell you the truth, I'd really like to read his biography.

obscured by fiction
Until now Defoe's The Storm hasn't been in print as a single volume since the mid 19th century.The reason being that since the mid 19th century the public has preferred to see Defoe as a fictionist like Dickens, which has degraded the value of his Journal of the Plague Year and consigned The Storm to oblivion.These works form a pair, both being about national disasters of historic significance.The difference in style is that The Storm consists of Defoe's own observations and research, and a collection of eyewitness accounts from around the nation that Defoe advertised for, while A Journal of the Plague Year has the eyewitness account and Defoe's research blended together into one common narrative.No other journalist has ever done that (perhaps this is why the audacity of Jack Shephard's escapes appealed to him).But if you read the Plague Year as fiction it would be like trying to read The Storm as fiction.

Weather experts have always commented favourably on The Storm and it is legendary.Like the Plague Year, this book is great to read through and browse in afterwards as well - it is not a book to throw away.Penguin has retained the dynamics of Defoe's original punctuation, but I wish that the print was bigger and blacker and more comnfortable to read. ... Read more

Product Description
Written in a time when criminal biographies enjoyed great success, Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders details the life of the irresistible Moll and her struggles through poverty and sin in search of property and power. Born in Newgate Prison to a picaresque mother, Moll propels herself through marriages, periods of success and destitution, and a trip to the New World and back, only to return to the place of her birth as a popular prostitute and brilliant thief. The story of Moll Flanders vividly illustrates Defoe’s themes of social mobility and predestination, sin, redemption and reward.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the 1721 edition printed by Chetwood in London, the only edition approved by Defoe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A bleak read
This classic of the life of a down and out woman in seventeenth century England is very different from DeFoe's other classic, Robinson Caruso. Moll Flanders is a bleak read. Everyone in it is pretty awful.Moll herself can be read in numerous ways. She is a conniving, evil women, brought low by her sins (this is arguably the way Defoe meant to portray her) or, she is a strong women, who uses the resources at her disposal to survive in a world that consistently abuses her. I prefer the second reading. Either way, the ending where Moll finds a sort of spiritual redemption seemed contrived to my sensibilities, even if that possibility of redemption is likely the reason Defoe wrote the book in the first place.

Assertive Adventurer
"Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu'd Variety for threescore years, besides her childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (Whereof once to her own Brother) Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and died a Penitent" (original title page), this is the beginning of an exciting book, Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. It is written in elevated language making it a difficult, but rewarding read. The novel is an accounting of the narrator, Moll's life. The focus is on how Moll deals with the hardships of her life and with being a woman in the seventeenth century. Defoe does an excellent job of showing how Moll's experiences change her outlook.
Moll Flanders was written in 1683, during a time in which women were considered subservient to men. Women were expected to get married and be content with the household affairs. However, money was the key, without it one would be unable to find a husband of position that would be a good provider. If a woman, like Moll, found herself alone and herself to rely upon, she discovered that there were not many options available, "I found by experience, that to be Friendless is the worst Condition, next to being in want, that a Woman can be reduc'd to: I say a Women, because `tis evident Men can be their own Advisers, and their own Directors, and know how to work themselves out of Difficulties and into Business better than women; but if a Woman has no Friend to Communicate her Affairs to, and to advise and assist her, tis' ten to one but she is undone" (121). Men dominated the business world and women were never taught to manage their own affairs or given the skills to enable them to make it in the business world. In fact, it was illegal for most women to do so. Without any acquaintances or contacts, a woman of this time was put at the mercy of strangers and fate. A woman that managed to be on her own was often suspected to be of ill reputation, and if she was labeled as such then life would be much harder.
Moll had a hard life from the beginning. She was born in Newgate prison, then taken in by a woman she dubbed Mistress Nurse. From an early age she wanted to become a gentlewoman, "...what I meant by being a Gentlewomen; and that I understood by it to be nothing more, than to be able to get my Bread by my own Work" (15). Upon her Mistress Nurse's death she was hired a servant in a high-class home. She became the lover to the eldest son, but the younger son fell in love with her and Moll was forced to marry him. He soon died and Moll married a "Gentleman-Tradesman" who spent all of their money, and had to leave the country to escape his creditors. Being very much desolate Moll realized, "Beauty, Wit, Manners, Sense, good Humour, good Behaviour, Education, Virtue, Piety, or any other Qualification, whether of Body or Mind, had no power to recommend: that Money only made a Women agreeable" (64). So Moll passed herself off as a woman of fortune, and married again. She moved with her husband to Virginia, and there realized that he was her brother. Upon that realization, Moll moved back to England. Upon her return she met another man, and over time became his mistress. After a terrible illness he decided that he could not live in sin with Moll any longer and turned her out. Moll then was tricked into marrying a man she believed to be very rich, and he was also deceived into believing she is a fortune. Having no money, they parted ways. Moll then married her accountant. After his death she was very poor, and out of desperation she became a thief. "The thoughts of this Booty put out all the thoughts of the first, and the Reflections I had made wore quickly off; Poverty, as I have said, harden'd my Heart, and my own Necessities made me regardless of any thing" (182). After a successful career as a thief, Moll was finally arrested and sent to Newgate. There she meets up with her fourth husband who was discovered to be a highwayman. They are both transported to Virginia where they buy a plantation together and eventually grow rich. Moll thus became a Gentlewoman.
In the male dominated society of the seventeenth century it was extremely difficult for a woman to make it on her own. Through Moll's experiences Defoe shows the difficult position a woman was faced with the lack of social liberty. Every plot development changes Moll slightly. Her Character almost completely changes as she becomes manipulative to get what she wants and needs to survive. This is apparent through her comments about her fifth husband before she married him, "I play'd with this Lover, as an Angler does with a Trout: I found I had him fast on the Hook, so I jested with his new Proposal" (133). The change in Moll's personality occurs slowly, but it makes her a more convincing character as well as highlights the effects of the hardships she endures. In the depiction of Moll's life, Defoe succeeds in questioning the subservient position that society forced women into in the seventeenth century.
The elevated language in Moll Flanders makes it a complicated read, however, if one is able to get past that obstacle the reader is rewarded with an outstanding story. Moll's life was a true adventure. Defoe's focus on Moll gives the reader insight into the hardships of the life of a woman in the seventeenth century, as well as shows the difficulty of getting ahead in those times. In a period where women were considered to be subservient to men, Moll was an assertive woman whose life was a great adventure.

Moll Flanders
I particularly loved this book.I thought it was very cleverly written.I was able to get into the character's life situations and I always wanted to see what would happen to the woman next.

Controversial
Obviously, this novel is about a prostitute.The writing accompanies this woman's journey without being dry or repetitive.I enjoyed it for it's inspection of femininity of the time as well as the clashing deviousness and classic redemption thrown together in the character of Moll Flanders.

Good Language, Bad Plot
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe is neither the best nor the worst book I have ever read.I have long been a lover of classical language.As such, I am enchanted by the engaging rhythm of Defoe's words.His dialogue is charming as he uses a tongue and accent not much different from today's but far more elegant. The plot of the story, however, disappoints me.The story is wholly comprised of events, making it nothing more than a flowery timeline of one woman's life.For me, this odd combination of excellent language and mediocre plot makes for an ultimately readable yet slightly dissatisfying novel.

Moll Flanders is the story of one woman's struggle to avoid the plight of poverty in seventeenth-century England.Moll is born in Newgate prison and orphaned by her criminal mother.From there, she is taken in by a kindly woman and raised as a "gentlewoman," and thus her story begins.Moll's childhood innocence is quickly transformed as her life turns from that of a simple servant into that of a common prostitute.She soon learns that sex and marriage are merely tools for bartering with, and love is only worth its weight in gold.Eventually, Moll turns from prostitution to stealing in order to supplement her finances, and her life goes drastically downhill from there.Her story is littered with unresolved sin and shame, until one momentous event changes her entire outlook on life and on love and teaches her what it means to be righteous.

Ultimately, what sounds like an intriguing story line results only in one continuous stream of events.Defoe's style of writing, although nicely worded, is impersonal in that he includes very little about the thoughts and feelings of Moll.Everything the reader learns about the main character is derived entirely from the events that comprise her life.Although this is supposed to be Moll's story, she has no reaction to the world around her.She simply reiterates what actions she has taken on her journey through life and what the resulting consequences are for those actions.Though hardly imagined to be a complete imbecile, Moll has absolutely no thought.The only words that I hear spoken directly from her mouth to the reader are words of dialogue to another character.The banality of this style of literature is highly disappointing in my eyes.

I am also highly disappointed with the content of the story.Only the first few pages and the last few pages are void of any criminal or adulterous behavior.Every other page contains a perfect recollection of one sin after the other.Although the story claims that this unrelenting wickedness should be useful to deter other sinners, I find that the continuous stream practically drowns me with boredom.Eventually, I lose track of Moll's numerous husbands and her countless thieving exploits.Any time a reference is made to her past history, I am forced to flip through the pages to find the mentioned sin as I have gotten it confused with some other of a similar nature.By the end of the story, every adventure sounds the same and every man has the same amount of money.I would have liked to see more variety in these pages.

I would not discourage another person from reading this book, however.I would gladly recommend it to those who love classical language, for I find Daniel Defoe was a great author for the words he could write, not necessarily for the stories he could create.The language is beautiful and enticing, for that alone I would recommend the book.Keep track of events and people while reading, though, because everything starts to sound the same after awhile. ... Read more

Product Description
Defoe has been recognized as the author of _A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates_ since 1932 when John Robert Moore suggested that the supposed author, Captain Charles Johnson, like Andrew Moreton, Kara Selym or Captain Roberts, was merely another mask for the creator of _Robinson Crusoe_. Although most of the first volume is of minor literary importance, the second section which appeared in 1728. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
The novel's official title is quite long and descriptive: "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Etc. Who Was Born In Newgate, and During a Life of Continu'd Variety For Threescore Years, Besides Her Childhood, Was Twelve Year a Whore, Five Times a Wife [Whereof Once To Her Own Brother], Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon In Virginia, At Last Grew Rich, Liv'd Honest, and Died a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums."

The story is believed by some to be a tale of capitalism due to the numerous allusions to money, contracts, and other currency-related items: Everything, including people, has a monetary value.

Moll Flanders often causes the reader to question if doing something immoral out of necessity is really immoral at all; her wicked deeds are told in a way to have compassion with her even when she intentionally harms and takes advantage of the kindest people. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Still Readable after All These Years
Though inevitably overshadowed by his immortal Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders is another excellent, important, and influential Daniel Defoe novel. Anyone who has not read Crusoe should of course do so first, but its fans are encouraged to continue here, as Moll has many of the same virtues.

Crusoe has long been called the first real Western novel, making Moll, which came out a few years later, an early entry. Like Crusoe, it can be highly enjoyed and appreciated simply as a rollicking adventure. It is nearly as entertaining, drawing us in quickly and never letting go through a remarkable series of plot twists continuing to the very end. The novel is fast-paced and intriguing, and its sheer readability is very noteworthy. It reads almost as well as ever despite archaic spellings and punctuation. Unlike nearly all classics, it need not be drastically edited, footnoted, and introduced for comprehension. This is hardly true of even many twentieth century works, much less one of such vintage. Even casual readers who have almost no experience with classics, to say nothing of ones three hundred years old, can pick it up with practically no trouble. The documentary style and clear, concise prose that made Crusoe so ground-breaking and absorbing are continued, but Moll is in many ways even more impressive because Crusoe had the easy draw of an exotic deserted island, while this is set in contemporary England and colonial America. The attractive element now comes from Defoe's focus on society's oft-overlooked underbelly, which he knew well from hard personal experience. We get a profoundly up-close look at the poor and downtrodden, including criminals, prisoners, indentured servants, and other laborers. Moll indeed focuses near-obsessively on the low and gritty, including prostitution and incest. This fascinated initial readers and continues to do so, helped by newly acquired historical value. The plot is highly improbable - far more so than Crusoe's in most ways -, but the stark realist tone and attention to everyday detail make it an invaluable record of early eighteenth century English and American life, including the dark side most never mention.

The character of Moll is also of great importance and highly lifelike despite being written by a man. Though lacking almost all conventional virtues save beauty and at times seeming to positively revel in what the era would have called deadly sin, she remains sympathetic. This is mostly because, like Crusoe, she remains resolute and optimistic in extremely adverse circumstances; the eternal values of courage, determination, and perseverance are on strong display, making her - against all odds - in some ways conventionally admirable.

More important from our perspective is Defoe's penetrating presentation of women's issues. Calling Moll a proto-feminist work would be too much, but Defoe shows a truly incredible knowledge of and sympathy for women's issues for a man born in the seventeenth century. He vividly shows the hardships women faced, many of them patently unfair, and the drastic lengths they had to go to in order to ameliorate their woes even a little. Moll may be unscrupulous from most perspectives but lived in an unjust society and did what she felt necessary to survive; there is much to look up to here, and she is arguably even noble in her way. She is in any event supremely interesting, as are the issues and themes she represents.

All told, while not one of literature's greatest works, Moll is a highly readable and important book that fans of Defoe and other early English novels will enjoy.

It was never easy being a poor woman!
This book helped me to understand the perils of being a poor woman in Seventeenth Century London. The character Moll Flanders was born poor and she had no family to support her, therefore her only ways of survival was to get married, sell her body, become a servant at very low wages. She chose to become a thief, and to always to appear to be something that she was not.

It is almost like a travel book because Moll is always moving from town to town, and from life episode to next episode, across the ocean trying to find a place to be herself and not a fake representation of a good woman.

Sometimes the narrator is too detailed and tells more than I needed to know, but it does seem like a woman is speaking, or writing in a journal, even though the book was actually written by a man. I enjoyed reading the book and felt some sympathy for Moll Flanders because of her struggles, weaknesses, and her ability to endure.

strange ways
If the underworld and the criminal mind interests you then read it. Strangeways is a hard time prison in England.Moll reads like something from there. It reminded me a bit of Genet's autoboigraphy as a homosexual and pick pocket. Yick. Moll is obviously a cover for Defoe's tentative homosexuality. Its not well suppressed like in Robinson Crusoe with his wonder Man Friday. It gets to be obvious and in the way like a sore thumb especially when you read these books together.Yuck. But there are those remarkable insights.

Give me not Poverty, lest I steal
This human portrait of a woman is also an excellent sketch of the living conditions and the social stratification in England in the 18th century: 'the Age is so wicked and the Sex so Debauch'd'.
It shows the immense chasm between a small class of wealthy people and the rest (Swift: a thousand to one). The latter were struggling for sheer survival and praying 'Give me not Poverty, lest I steal' ... to be hanged: 'If I swing by the String, I shall hear the Bell ring, and then there's an End of poor Jenny.'

But both classes intermingled.
As E.J. Burford quotes in his masterful book 'The Synfulle Citie':
Those who were riche were hangid by the Pursse
Those who were poore were hangid by the Necke

Defoe's Moll Flanders: 'the passive Jade thinks of no Pleasure but the Money; and when he is as it were drunk in the Extasies of his wicked Pleasure, her Hands are in his Pockets.'

Defoe paints the poor's religion as fatalism. Moll Flanders is all the time reproaching herself her Course of life, 'a horrid Complication of Wickedness, Whoredom, Adultery, Incest, Lying, Theft', but in the face of death at the gallows, 'I had now neither Remorse or Repentance ... no Thought of Heaven or Hell ... I neither had a Heart to ask God's Mercy.'

Defoe's work is eminently modern, with his psychological insight 'What a Felicity is it to Mankind that they cannot see into the Hearts of one another', and 'Modest men are better Hypocrites';
or, the ravages of alcoholism: 'the Drunk are the Men whom Solomon says, they go like an Ox to the Slaughter, till a Dart strikes through their Liver';
and his feminism: 'the Disadvantage of the Women is a terrible Scandal upon Men', and 'Money only made a Woman agreeable.'

Defoe's appeal to the reader - 'every Branch of my Story may be useful to honest People' - seems to be a smokescreen to circumvent censorship, because ultimately Moll Flanders prospers. This book is a perfect illustration of Bernard
Mandeville's 'Triumph of Private Vices' in his 'Fable of the Bees'.

Although some developments in this story are rather improbable, this superbly ironic and lively text constitutes an immortal portrait of the 'horrid Complication' to be a woman, here personified in Moll Flanders.
Not to be missed.

Dust off this musty book for some good social critique
Moll Flanders is a typical 18th Century book that one would read in a class about early English novels. Daniel Defoe's so-called `masterpiece' gets labeled sometimes as one of the first novels ever written, and sometimes the prose shows. Written from the first-person perspective of the title character, Moll
Flanders tells the tale of a poor social low-life who has to turn to a life of crime after five failed marriages. Readers receive a rambling narrative of colorful characters that reside in the underbelly of 18th Century London. Moll Flanders waswritten originally as a sordid account that was to be taken as
`fact,' because of the way that Defoe mimicked the book after a popular form at the time that interviewed criminals on their deathbed. Defoe and his contemporaries used to compile these tales of redemption or non-repentance into what was called the Newgate Records. As the reader feels bad for Moll throughout the text, readers will see her go from a life of barely getting by to marrying her brother by accident to living a life of crime
through her own agency. A sophisticated critique of the prison system and class economics of England, Defoe's work stands the test of time for fresh commentary and readability. While most people might find Defoe's writing style to be a bit antiquated, the story is not, and will most likely reach its intended
audience. It's still true today that those criminals who become public examples are the ones from most of the lower castes, as are most criminals in general. The biggest question in Defoe's Moll Flanders still remains unanswered: How can one move up in a society that benefits those without any sort of inherited wealth or the means to further their position?
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