Moll Flanders

Moll Flanders has been attributed to Daniel Defoe, the 18th century author of Robinson Crusoe. However, it was never published under his name. Instead, it was published as if it were a memoir of a woman with the pseudonym of Moll Flanders. She has quite the life. Her mother was a criminal, and she was raised as an orphan. She is married multiple times, has a large number of children, travels to the new world and back and gets involved with a criminal element. She realizes that men are often after marrying somebody with money, so she feigns being a wealthy heiress, but in the process, also plays hard to get, getting men to commit to marry her even if she does not have money. In one case, it turned out that both she and her husband were pretending to have great wealth. In another case, she married a man and then went off to join him in the new world. Once there, she met his mother. She later discovered that his mother was also her mother, and that they were half-siblings. She struggled to eventually find a way to break off the marriage without getting anybody in trouble. When joining up with the criminal element, she keeps telling herself she will shortly leave, but keeps with it until she is finally caught.

Moll Flanders is an independent woman a few years ahead of her time. She carves out her full independence while adhering to the restrictions placed on women during her time. Her life comes across as almost believable, yet filled with just enough hyperbole to push it over the edge.