After the success ofRobinson Crusoeand its follow-ups,Daniel DefoepublishedMoll Flandersin 1722. It’s an episodic, picaresque novel that recounts Moll’s long life of misadventures. It has a journalistic, plain style, with unadorned, prosaic speech that flows naturally from story to story.
The novel is written as a purported autobiography over the course of the narrator’s life. As a young orphan in poverty, Moll claims she wants to be a “gentlewoman” when she gets...
