English Literature / Unit 11 ENL 1013 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Moll Flanders
Captions available
The idea
Moll Flanders, of seventeen twenty-two, is a picaresque novel narrated by a woman born in Newgate Prison who lives as wife, thief and penitent, is condemned, and ends prosperous in Virginia. Defoe claims the moral will "keep the reader serious," though the crimes are told in vivid detail.
In practice
A thief's confession, told in detail.
Where people slip
The moral frame and the detail pull apart.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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