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Ruth Deason | 2/17/2014
" This is not one of my favorites; however, I am amazed at this woman's savvy, endurance, and tenacity in the 17th Century, not the 21st!! "
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Aaron Humphrey | 2/10/2014
" Moll Flanders is an interesting story told badly. Admittedly, the novel as a form was still in its infancy, but it is tiresome to read a story full of reported speech, where no character is named unless the author can absolutely not avoid it, and where semicolon-spliced run-on sentences are the norm. "
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Rainey | 2/10/2014
" Loved this when I read it in college. "
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Bridget | 2/5/2014
" I'm not sure I've ever read a book that seemed to scream "Cautionary morality tale" as loud as this one did. I found parts of it interesting because of some of the insights to the setting, such as the existence of homes where women could go to during their "confinement" for care and birthing and delivery. Much of it was too over-the-top to really enjoy. As a man, Defoe also lacks a certain credibility for writing in first person for this character. He really didn't come across as genuine or believable. "
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Jenny McPhee | 2/2/2014
" Hard to believe that the same guy who wrote this wrote Robinson Crusoe--if that was an excercise in austerity, this is an excercise in late 18th century soft-porn. Crusoe a genius with the first person narrative. "
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David | 1/23/2014
" This was a surprisingly fun read. I bought the book on sale, but once I got started I found myself looking forward to all of her various adventures. Moll's marriages and various affairs with men were largely told in a straightforward, often humorous fashion. Meanwhile, her life of crime was often filled with unexpected twists and turns. Frankly, Moll seemed like she would be very much at home in the 21st century, even though the book was written in the early 18th century! "
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Steven | 1/15/2014
" Somewhat lengthy picaresque early novel from Daniel Defoe, this book chronicles the life and times for the hard-luck cases in 17th Century England and Virginia. This book is quite long on plot and there is plenty of sexual longing, husband-hunting, incest, bigamy, fraud, prostitution, thievery, and redemption. In fact, there may be a bit too much plot as action moves rather quickly from one caper to the next. One thing I did note about the book throughout was that Defoe wrote this character very well and seems to have very little difficult in writing from the female perspective. Overall an enjoyable enough novel, but I found it to be missing that special something that turns a good book into a great one. "
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Lisa James | 1/9/2014
" The story of a good girl gone wrong is timeless. To see it happen in Victorian England is rather eye opening. You really get smacked in the face with the horrible choices women had to make in those days, & makes us modern women thankful that we have many more rights & choices available to us. So even though the story did have it's humorous anecdotes, as told by the irrepressible Moll Flanders, it's really rather sad if you think about it. I ended up having to admire Moll as a character for her sheer toughness & audacity, & her ability to rise to the occasion every time the chips were down. She's gutsy, & true to herself. "
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Rick | 1/2/2014
" Defoe's Moll Flanders lives her life in her own way, surviving by her wits and making the most of her abilities. She's clever. She's creative. She's sexy. She's devious. She knows how to get away with things. "
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Melissa | 12/12/2013
" "I had premarital sex and it ruined my life!" "
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Mark Wadman | 12/3/2013
" Female bildungsroman at its criminal best! "
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Kristen Coppess | 11/23/2013
" Sick and twisted: follows a woman's line of thought with stunning precision and makes you cringe over and over! "
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Lindsay | 11/13/2013
" This did strain the bounds of credibility at times, but that was all part of the fun. The format did make it a bit hard to read (what can I say, I like chapters), but overall it was an interesting read. "
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Kathryn Hahn-Ferguson | 11/4/2013
" I loved this book. I still find it hard to believe this was written almost 300 years ago. "
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Caitlin | 11/2/2013
" Not as good as "Robinson Crusoe," this story does do a good job describing what living in London would be like for a disenfranchised young girl. It is funny and sad and Moll is a very clever girl. Her exploits are interesting but although the book is small, it felt too dense and long for what it is. "
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Kristy | 4/16/2013
" I enjoyed this story because, for the 1700's, her lifestyle was... salacious. "
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David Loveland | 4/6/2013
" This was slow going at points, especially when Defoe insists on listing about 100 different ways in which Moll steals from people (a simple 'she lived several years as a thief' would have sufficed!). Interesting from a historic perspective but not very captivating from a literary perspective. "
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Correen | 2/18/2013
" I listened to this novel on my i-pod and found it quite satisfactory. It is interesting to read humor from another century. I think I missed a good portion of the humor but enjoyed much of it. While being very funny, the book also points out serious social concerns of the time. Defoe was a master! "
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Casey | 1/23/2013
" I don't have strong feelings for this book but I appreciated it. "
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Rachel | 8/20/2012
" So much fun. When I taught it in my college lit classes, so many older students wanted their teenage daughters to read it as well . . . which was kinda, sorta, maybe Defoe's intent as evident in his preface. "
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Joyce | 7/21/2012
" This is clearly one of the more interesting classic novels. It tells the story of a woman who has all kinds of bad luck and children and much more... "
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Huma Rashid | 2/24/2012
" For "the first novel ever written," if we buy that claim, this book was absolutely hilarious. So entertaining! Moll's infuriating, though, but you kind of have to love her for her ridiculousness and awfulness. "
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Amber | 1/23/2012
" The theme of the book really made me think about how strange life in this time period would be. A woman's survival completely depended on marrying well. Also interesting to think about what good ole Virginia, my current home, was like in the beginning. Convicts, convicts convicts.... "
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Sandy | 12/23/2011
" page 200. have to read 200 more by friday for book group. torture. awful at 1st but then my brain recalled how to read this language and as it were my own progress will be proceeding somewhat apace...;-) "
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Danielle | 9/7/2011
" really... the first few discs were quite entertaining and the narrator does a wonderful job. The second half of the book was just too much. The end tied it all together, but I was still wishing the story had ended on disc 5 rather than disc 11. "
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Caroline | 7/22/2011
" Thanks to work-overload it took me ages to read this one... Moll <3 No idea what contemporaries thought of her Fortunes and Misfortunes, but I loved it! "
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Angelina | 7/18/2011
" Having read Roxana first (although Moll Flanders was written first), I found this too similar to Roxana. And Moll Flanders fixes herself and goes on to live a prosperous life of good behavior. I enjoyed Roxana infinitely more for being a stronger woman. "
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Victoria | 6/13/2011
" How is it that I love this whore? I was not raised to love whores.
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Anya | 5/30/2011
" Fantastic, elucidating adventures of a smart, sexy woman bent on survival. Strongly considering making a movie adaptation. The female version of Barry Lyndon.
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Huma | 5/10/2011
" For "the first novel ever written," if we buy that claim, this book was absolutely hilarious. So entertaining! Moll's infuriating, though, but you kind of have to love her for her ridiculousness and awfulness.
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Jade | 5/9/2011
" What a woman and what a book! I thoroughly enjoyed this and would now consider one of my favourite classics.
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Jessica | 4/6/2011
" I found this book amazingly funny. The crazy things that Moll Flanders gets herself into had me laughing out loud.
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Cinderfox | 4/4/2011
" Love, love, love.
So glad I don't live her life, but what an mazing story. Lots of twists, turns, ups, downs, and laughs along the way. She may be responsible for birthing half the population of England, and robbing the other half.
"
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Lindsay | 3/4/2011
" This did strain the bounds of credibility at times, but that was all part of the fun. The format did make it a bit hard to read (what can I say, I like chapters), but overall it was an interesting read.
"
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