Type of bind: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.5
EAN num: 9780140863079
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
ISBN number: 0140863079
Label: Penguin Audio
Manufacturer: Penguin Audio
Quantity: 4
Printing Date: April 01, 1996
Publishing house: Penguin Audio
Sale Popularity Level: 1514902
Studio: Penguin Audio
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Moll Flanders presents a sharply original and still relevant picture of triumph over the seamy side of the struggle for prosperity and power. A major MGM/UA movie will premiere in January 1996, starring Robin Wright, Morgan Freeman, Stockard Channing, and Brenda Fricker. 4 cassettes.
Amazon.com Review:
The recent adaptation of Moll Flanders for Masterpiece Theater is a book-lover's dream: the dialogue and scene arrangement are close enough to allow the viewer to follow along in the book. The liberties taken with the tale are few (some years of childhood between the gypsies and the wealthy family are elided; Moll is Moll throughout the tale, rather than Mrs. Betty; Robert becomes Rowland, etc.) and the sets avoid the careless anachronism of the movie version released earlier this year.
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.
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Rated by buyers 
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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.
Rated by buyers -
Moll Flanders / 0-451-52633-3
Defoe's novel, Moll Flanders, one of the very 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.
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers -
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 very 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 very 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 very 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.
Rated by buyers -
This story seems a bit dated, and once you understand the premise that this is a fallen woman story, it becomes a little predictable and holds little suspense. One interesting aspect is that it's a man narrating as a woman, but the style gets a little crusty, and you can almost read the second half by just skimming the adjectives and nouns, good gentleman, good governess, horrid wretch, thief, and etc. Things go from bad to worse for Moll as she ages, and loses her money making beauty, but she eventually regains her peace of mind and some comfort through something like a stroke of luck and her re-deliverance to Virginia. Interesting that Virginia is considered a step down from the home island and a world of hard labor and servitude in the year 1683 as opposed to England.
I would say that this story is a bit outdated, since it becomes just a list of misfortunes, and the premise that she is a penitent woman at the end of the story with many secrets and no confessional available is a bit hackneyed and lame. It's got it's points though and it serves as a valuable point for looking at literature of this time period. My main problem is that the story is broken into chunks of three page stories of misfortune and then another chapter starts (although there are no actual chapters) of misfortune. So there is after a whil a feeling of more of the same.
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