Moll Flanders

By: Daniel Defoe

Narrated by: Georgina Sutton

"The fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders, who was born in Newgate, and during a life of continue'd variety for three-score years, besides her childhood, was twelve year a whore, five times a wife (whereof once to her own brother), twelve year a thief, eight year a transported felon in Virginia at last grew rich, liv'd honest, and died a penitent."

So begins Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe's honest portrayal of one woman's struggle for economic survival in an unsympathetic world. Told with uncompromising directness and an extraordinary empathy, it is, as Virginia Woolf once claimed, "one of the few English novels we can call indisputably great".

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2017 Naxos AudioBooks

A seventeenth century version of a Netflix binge

I’m so glad Georgina Sutton read this because I’d never have bothered myself and it’s a great story.

Sutton is such a consummate performer - I’d listen to her read just about anything (try her Mapp And Lucia series- perfect).

But the story is great too, despite the fact Defoe wrote this in a time when people had patience (and no Netflix). Yes, it does go on a bit, but it is a fascinating insight into what life was like back then. Recommended.

Full Circle

I had an English Professor make me write a paper six different times with different topics on Moll Flanders... and told me he hated my topic and that I could redo the paper for a better grade. I still got a C on it after rewriting this again and again... finally turning the last one in at the end of the semester. So I hated this book after this and avoided it for over 20 years until I decided to listen to the Audiobook.

Now coming full circle I think I appreciate it better today than when I was a college student. I wish I could have listened to it back then... I think I would have grasped it better.

Pure joy.

What a delight to travel back three hundred years and make new acquaintances. Highly recommended.

Wonderful!

The fascinating story of a resilient woman whose up-and-down-and-up-again fortunes show the realities of women’s lives in the 17th century.

Highly recommended!

What an amazing tale--and superbly read! Long, but I stayed with it. And am so glad I did.