{"product_id":"moll-flanders-isbn-9780679405481","title":"Moll Flanders","description":"This is the spirited story of a survivor whose racy anecdotes and shady dealings only underline her essential warmth and goodness. But there is nothing sentimental about Moll, who presents herself warts and all. Though her adventures take her abroad, she remains the vivid creation of London.\u003cp\u003eMoll Flanders, pickpocket and prostitute–a mercantile genius trading in the oldest human commodity–has been for the past three centuries an enduring representative of reckless vitality combined with unshakable inner virtue. Daniel Defoe manages his story with such skill that our affection for his heroine increases with each astonishing sin she commits.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMoll’s adventures–possibly taken by Defoe from the story of some real criminal he met in Newgate, who “five times a wife, twelve year a thief, eight year a transported felon, at last grew rich, lived honest and died a penitent”–is told with the directness of narrative and reality of incident in which Defoe, often called the father of the novel, has never been equaled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e“The brilliance of \u003ci\u003eMoll Flanders\u003c\/i\u003e, and of the best of Defoe’s other novels, is that they dramatize the uncertainty that goes with the opportunism, and show us a world in which, if you can make yourself, you can lose yourself too.” –from the Introduction by John MullanDaniel Defoe was born Daniel Foe in London in 1660. It was perhaps, ineveitable that Defoe, an outspoken man, would become a political journalist. As a Puritan he believed God had given him a mission to print the truth, that is, to proselytize on religion and politics, and in fact, he became a prolific pamphleteer satirizing the hypocrisies of both Church and State. Defoe admired William III, and his poem \u003ci\u003eThe True-Born Englishman \u003c\/i\u003e(1701) won him the King's friendship. But an ill-timed satire on High Church extremists, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, published during Queen Anne's reign, resulted in his being pilloried and imprisoned for seditious libel in 1703. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt fifty-nine Defoe turned to fiction, completing \u003ci\u003eThe Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e(1719), partly based on the saga of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor; \u003ci\u003eMoll Flanders\u003c\/i\u003e (1722); \u003ci\u003eColonel Jack\u003c\/i\u003e (1722); \u003ci\u003eA Journal of the Plague Years\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e(1722); and \u003ci\u003eRoxana or the Fortunate Mistress\u003c\/i\u003e (1724).\u003cb\u003eThe History and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, \u0026amp;c. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy True Name is so  well known in the Records, or Registers at Newgate, and in the Old-Baily,1 and there  are some things of such Consequence still depending there, relating to my particular  Conduct, that it is not to be expected I should set my Name, or the Account of my  Family to this Work; perhaps, after my Death it may be better known, at present it  would not be proper, no, not tho’ a general Pardon should be issued, even without  Exceptions and reserve of Persons or Crimes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It is enough to tell you, that as some  of my worst Comrades, who are out of the Way of doing me Harm, having gone out of  the World by the Steps, and the String2 as I often expected to go, know me by the  Name of Moll Flanders; so you may give me leave to speak of myself, under that Name  till I dare own who I have been, as well as who I am.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I have been told, that in  one of our Neighbour Nations, whether it be in France, or where else, I know not;  they have an Order from the King, that when any Criminal is condemn’d, either to  Die, or to the Gallies, or to be Transported, if they leave any Children, as such  are generally unprovided for, by the Poverty or Forfeiture of their Parents; so they  are immediately taken into the Care of the Government, and put into an Hospital call’ d the House of Orphans, where they are Bred up, Cloath’d, Fed, Taught, and when fit  to go out, are plac’d out to Trades, or to Services, so as to be well able to provide  for themselves by an honest industrious Behaviour.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Had this been the Custom in our  Country, I had not been left a poor desolate Girl without Friends, without Cloaths,  without Help or Helper in the World, as was my Fate; and by which, I was not only  expos’d to very great Distresses, even before I was capable, either of Understanding  my Case, or how to Amend it, nor brought into a Course of Life, which was not only  scandalous in itself, but, which in its ordinary Course, tended to the swift Destruction  both of Soul and Body.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But the Case was otherwise here, my Mother was convicted  of Felony for a certain petty Theft, scarce worth naming, (viz.) Having an opportunity  of borrowing three Pieces of fine Holland,3 of a certain Draper4 in Cheapside:5 The  Circumstances are too long to repeat, and I have heard them related so many Ways,  that I can scarce be certain, which is the right Account.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e However it was, this they  all agree in, that my Mother pleaded her Belly,6 and being found quick with Child;  she was respited for about seven Months, in which time having brought me into the  World, and being about again, she was call’d Down,7 as they term it, to her former  Judgment, but obtain’d the Favour of being Transported to the Plantations, and left  me about Half a Year old; and in bad Hands you may be sure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This is too near the  first Hours of my Life, for me to relate any thing of myself, but by hear say, ’tis  enough to mention, that as I was born in such an unhappy Place, I had no Parish8  to have Recourse to for my Nourishment in my Infancy, nor can I give the least Account  how I was kept alive; other, than that as I have been told, some Relation of my Mothers  took me away for a while as a Nurse, but at whose Expence, or by whose Direction  I know nothing at all of it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The first account that I can Recollect, or could ever  learn of myself, was, that I had wandred among a Crew of those People they call Gypsies,  or Egyptians;9 but I believe it was but a very little while that I had been among  them, for I had not had my Skin discolour’d, or blacken’d, as they do very young  to all the Children they carry about with them, nor can I tell how I came among them,  or how I got from them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It was at Colchester in Essex, that those People left me;  and I have a Notion in my Head, that I left them there, (that is, that I hid myself  and wou’d not go any farther with them) but I am not able to be particular in that  Account; only this I remember, that being taken up by some of the Parish Officers  of Colchester, I gave an Account, that I came into the Town with the Gypsies, but  that I would not go any farther with them, and that so they had left me, but whether  they were gone that I knew not, nor could they expect it of me; for tho’ they sent  round the Country to enquire after them, it seems they could not be found.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I was  now in a Way to be provided for; for tho’ I was not a Parish Charge upon this, or  that part of the Town by Law; yet as my Case came to be known, and that I was too  young to do any Work, being not above three Years old, Compassion mov’d the Magistrates  of the Town to order some Care to be taken of me, and I became one of their own,  as much as if I had been born in the Place.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the Provision they made for me, it  was my good hap to be put to Nurse,10 as they call it, to a Woman who was indeed  Poor, but had been in better Circumstances, and who got a little Livelihood by taking  such as I was suppos’d to be; and keeping them with all Necessaries, till they were  at a certain Age, in which it might be suppos’d they might go to Service, or get  their own Bread.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This Woman had also had a little School, which she kept to teach  Children to Read and to Work; and having, as I have said, liv’d before that in good  Fashion, she bred up the Children she took with a great deal of Art, as well as with  a great deal of Care.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But that which was worth all the rest, she bred them up very  Religiously, being herself a very sober pious Woman. (2.) Very Housewifly11 and Clean,  and, (3.) Very Mannerly, and with good Behaviour: So that in a Word, excepting a  plain Diet, course Lodging, and mean Cloaths, we were brought up as Mannerly and  as Genteely, as if we had been at the Dancing-School.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I was continu’d here till  I was eight years Old, when I was terrified with News, that the Magistrates, as I  think they call’d them, had order’d that I should go to Service; I was able to do  but very little Service where ever I was to go, except it was to run of Errands,  and be a Druge to some Cook-Maid, and this they told me of often, which put me into  a great Fright; for I had a thorough Aversion to going to Service, as they call’d  it, that is to be a Servant, tho’ I was so young; and I told my Nurse, as we call’ d her, that I believ’d I could get my Living without going to Service if she pleas’ d to let me; for she had Taught me to Work with my Needle, and Spin Worsted, which  is the chief Trade of that City, and I told her that if she wou’d keep me, I wou’ d Work for her, and I would Work very hard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I talk’d to her almost every Day of  Working hard; And in short, I did nothing but Work and Cry all Day, which griev’d  the good kind Woman so much, that at last she began to be concern’d for me, for she  lov’d me very well.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e One Day after this, as she came into the Room, where all we  poor Children were at Work, she sat down just over against12 me, not in her usual  Place as Mistress, but as if she set herself on purpose to observe me, and see me  Work: I was doing something she had set me to, as I remember, it was Marking13 some  Shirts, which she had taken to Make, and after a while she began to Talk to me: Thou  foolish Child, says she, thou art always Crying; (for I was Crying then) prethee,  What doest Cry for? because they will take me away, says I, and put me to Service,  and I can’t Work House-Work; well Child, says she, but tho’ you can’t Work House-Work,  as you call it, you will learn it in time, and they won’t put you to hard Things  at first; yes they will, says I, and if I can’t do it, they will Beat me, and the  Maids will Beat me to make me do great Work, and I am but a little Girl, and I can’ t do it, and then I cry’d again, till I could not speak any more to her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This mov’ d my good Motherly Nurse, so that she from that time resolv’d I should not go to  Service yet, so she bid me not Cry, and she wou’d speak to Mr. Mayor, and I should  not go to Service till I was bigger.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Well, this did not Satisfie me, for to think  of going to Service, was such a frightful Thing to me, that if she had assur’d me  I should not have gone till I was 20 years old, it wou’d have been the same to me,  I shou’d have cry’d, I believe all the time, with the very Apprension of its being  to be so at last.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When she saw that I was not pacify’d yet, she began to be angry  with me, and what wou’d you have? says she, don’t I tell you that you shall not go  to Service till you are bigger? Ay, says I, but then I must go at last, why, what?  said she, is the Girl mad? what, would you be a Gentlewoman? Yes says I, and cry’ d heartily, till I roar’d out again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This set the old Gentlewoman a Laughing at  me, as you may be sure it would: Well, Madam forsooth, says she, Gibing at me, you  would be a Gentlewoman, and pray how will you come to be a Gentlewoman? what, will  you do it by your Fingers Ends?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Yes, says I again, very innocently.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Why, what can  you Earn, says she, what can you get at your Work?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Three-Pence, said I, when I Spin,  and 4 d. when I Work plain Work.14\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Alas! poor Gentlewoman, said she again, Laughing,  what will that do for thee?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It will keep me, says I, if you will let me live with  you; and this I said, in such a poor petitioning Tone, that it made the poor Womans  Heart yearn to me, as she told me afterwards.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But, says she, that will not keep  you, and buy you Cloaths too; and who must buy the little Gentlewoman Cloaths, says  she, and smil’d all the while at me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I will Work Harder then, says I, and you shall  have it all.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Poor Child! it won’t keep you, says she, it will hardly keep you in  Victuals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Then I will have no Victuals, says I, again very Innocently, let me but  live with you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Why, can you live without Victuals? says she, yes, again says I,  very much like a Child, you may be sure, and still I cry’d heartily.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I had no Policy  in all this, you may easily see it was all Nature, but it was joyn’d with so much  Innocence, and so much Passion, That in short, it set the good Motherly Creature  a weeping too, and she cry’d at last as fast as I did, and then took me, and led  me out of the teaching Room; come, says she, you shan’t go to Service, you shall  live with me, and this pacify’d me for the present.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sometime after this, she going  to wait on the Mayor, and talking of such things as belong’d to her Business, at  last my Story came up, and my good Nurse told Mr. Mayor the whole Tale: He was so  pleas’d with it, that he would call his Lady, and his two Daughters to hear it, and  it made Mirth enough among them, you may besure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e However, not a Week had pass’d  over, but on a suddain comes Mrs. Mayoress, and her two Daughters to the House to  see my old Nurse, and to see her School and the Children: When they had look’d about  them a little: Well, Mrs. —— says the Mayoress to my Nurse; and pray which is the  little Lass that intends to be a Gentlewoman? I heard her, and I was terrible frighted  at first, tho’ I did not know why neither; but Mrs. Mayoress comes up to me, Well  Miss says she, And what are you at Work upon? The Word Miss was a Language that had  hardly been heard of in our School, and I wondred what sad Name it was she call’d  me; However, I stood up, made a Curtsy, and she took my Work out of my Hand, look’ d on it, and said it was very well; then she took up one of my Hands, nay, says she,  the Child may come to be a Gentlewoman for ought any body knows, she has a Gentlewoman’ s Hand, says she; this pleas’d me mightily you may be sure, but Mrs. Mayoress did  not stop there, but giving me my Work again, she put her Hand in her Pocket, gave  me a Shilling, and bid me mind my Work, and learn to Work well, and I might be a  Gentlewoman for ought she knew.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Now all this while, my good old Nurse, Mrs. Mayoress,  and all the rest of them did not understand me at all, for they meant one Sort of  thing, by the Word Gentlewoman,15 and I meant quite another; for alas, all I understood  by being a Gentlewoman, was to be able to Work for myself, and get enough to keep  me without that terrible Bug-bear going to Service, whereas they meant to live Great,  Rich, and High, and I know not what.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Well, after Mrs. Mayoress was gone, her two  Daughters came in, and they call’d for the Gentlewoman too, and they talk’d a long  while to me, and I answer’d them in my Innocent way; but always if they ask’d me  whether I resolv’d to be a Gentlewoman, I answer’d Yes: At last one of them ask’d  me, what a Gentlewoman was? that puzzel’d me much; but however, I explain’d myself  negatively, that it was one that did not go to Service, to do House-Work; they were  pleas’d to be familiar me,16 and lik’d my little Prattle to them, which it seems  was agreeable enough to them, and they gave me Money too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As for my Money I gave  it all to my Mistress Nurse, as I call’d her, and told her she should have all I  got for myself when I was a Gentlewoman, as well as now; by this and some other of  my talk, my old Tutress began to understand me, about what I meant by being a Gentlewoman;  and that I understood by it to no more, than to be able to get my Bread by my own  Work, and at last, she ask’d me whether it was not so.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I told her yes, and insisted  on it, that to do so, was to be a Gentlewoman; for says I, there is such a one, naming  a Woman that mended Lace, and wash’d the Ladies Lac’d-heads,17 she, says I, is a  Gentlewoman, and they call her Madam.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Poor Child, says my good old Nurse, you may  soon be such a Gentlewoman as that, for she is a Person of ill Fame, and has had  two or three Bastards.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I did not understand any thing of that; but I answer’d, I  am sure they call her Madam, and she does not go to Service, nor do House-Work, and  therefore I insisted that she was a Gentlewoman, and I would be such a Gentlewoman  as that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Ladies were told all this again to be sure, and they made themselves  Merry with it, and every now and then the young Ladies, Mr. Mayor’s Daughters would  come and see me, and ask where the little Gentlewoman was, which made me not a little  Proud of myself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This held a great while, and I was often visited by these young  Ladies, and sometimes they brought others with them; so that I was known by it, almost  all over the Town.","brand":"Everyman's Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302915330277,"sku":"NP9780679405481","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780679405481.jpg?v=1767732882","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/moll-flanders-isbn-9780679405481","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}