moll flanders by d. defoe

This is a very important book. Unfortunately, readers often miss its significance and its meaning. Firstly, the book is somewhat difficult to read because it does lack a certain amount of fluidity and transitional language, so that the book does seem to "jump" from a topic headlong into another, but it is important to remember that this is one of the first novels ever written. Defoe is creating a new genre and he is working his way through it, so yes, sometimes things don't seem to feel right. Also, Defoe is trying to explain something to his readers - he is not interested in bedasing Moll for prostitution, he is interested in showing his readers just how poverty and low class status create such things as prostitution. Moll is not bad or unworthy or contemptible. She is just one of thousands of women in her time, who are trying to survive in a capitalist, male-dominated society. The social circumstances are the villain here, not Moll. Moll is only what society has made her, and unfortunately, England, especially in this time period, was populated by many more "Moll's" than it was "gentlewomen".