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3.21 AVERAGE
3.21 AVERAGE
Boy, was this a difficult read. I normally like old-school literature (I'm a sucker for Madame Bovary and the like), but this was just not the one. Moll's life was like a bad, drawn out soap opera...but without me coming back for more. Honestly, it just made me feel bad for women. Wouldn't recommend, and I need to trade this copy back in to a used bookstore.
sad
slow-paced
As one of the great-grand children of Moll, DEAD BLONDE would say: "Быть несчастной лучше в лимузине, чем пешком"
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Synopsis: Moll is born to a woman in Newgate, grows up with a foster mother an deventually gets taken in by a rich family when she dies. The rich family has two brothers, one of whom seduces her, promises to marry her and never does. The other brother evetnually does and then dies. She eventually marries a man who takes her to Virginia, where she finds her mother and finds out her husband is actually her brother. She leaves him after much chest beating and humming and hawing, and ends up back in egnland, where she doesnt have much money but pretends to to get a man. The man turns out to be a robber and has no money, and they eventually part. She returns to london and has the baby and marries the man who she left her money with in trust. That man eventually dies and she is penniless, so she starts stealing. The woman who helped her birth her child starts pawning her goods and they make a good living. After many escapades, she is eventually caught and brought to Newgate, where she repents her ways, finds out her Newcastle husband is also there, and they both agree to be transported after a stay of execution. They end up back in Virginia where she starts a plantation, gets money back and her son from her virginia husband helps her get her inheritance as well. She stops writing at an old age when she's back in England.
Bit of a slog in parts, especially the first part with the two brothers, the virginia husband and the newcastle husband bits. He just has a slower pace of writing I guess compared to what we're used to in the 21st century. It is interesting at least to hear about the underworld of that time with petty theft, robbery, prostitution and even having children out of wedlock and disposing of them afterwards talked about in candid terms. It's said that Defoe was a proponent of women's education so he was very progressive for that time period. Still shows signs of age however, and I probably wouldn't read it again.
Bit of a slog in parts, especially the first part with the two brothers, the virginia husband and the newcastle husband bits. He just has a slower pace of writing I guess compared to what we're used to in the 21st century. It is interesting at least to hear about the underworld of that time with petty theft, robbery, prostitution and even having children out of wedlock and disposing of them afterwards talked about in candid terms. It's said that Defoe was a proponent of women's education so he was very progressive for that time period. Still shows signs of age however, and I probably wouldn't read it again.
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If I have to read this again in my life it’ll be too soon!
‘5 times a wife 12 years a whore’
me too girl me too
me too girl me too
Moll Flanders is an engaging character. I lost count of the number of husbands she accumulated, and the children she abandoned, but even as she lies, deceives, connives and steals her way through life, I cannot help liking her. It is her frankness, her complete awareness of her own failings and, ironically, her honesty.
Defoe provides us not only with one of literature's greatest characters, but also an exceptional account of the social conditions and thinking that prevailed in late 17th/early 18th century England. For all of its faults, and they're there to be found, "Moll Flanders" is a fascinating book, an essential read.
Defoe provides us not only with one of literature's greatest characters, but also an exceptional account of the social conditions and thinking that prevailed in late 17th/early 18th century England. For all of its faults, and they're there to be found, "Moll Flanders" is a fascinating book, an essential read.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes