This purportedly true story, recorded by English author Daniel Defoe, tells of the strange life of Moll Flanders, a woman who lives in sin and wickedness, surviving only on her beauty, cleverness, and deceit. Finding herself in the role of mistress or kept woman, or alternatively married to a man that she does not love, Moll seduces various men and resorts to thievery to pay her way before eventually repenting for her sins at the end of her life. Moll Flanders was one of Defoe's later works, written during a prolific period during which he published other famous works including The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Roxana, and A Journal of the Plague Year. Due to the somewhat scandalous nature of its content, Moll Flanders did not experience the immediate success that other of Defoe's works did upon publication, but has since become recognized as a significant literary achievement

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