Summary

The full title of Moll Flanders gives an apt summary of the plot: "The Fortunes and
Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Etc. Who was orn in !ewgate, and during a life of
continu"d #ariety for Threescore $ears, esides her %hildhood, was Twelve $ear a Whore,
five times a Wife &whereof once to her own rother', Twelve $ear a Thief, Eight $ear a
Transported Felon in #irginia, at last grew (ich, liv"d )onest and died a *enitent. Written
from her own Memorandums."
Moll Flanders is orn to a mother who has een convicted of a felony and who is transported
to +merica soon after her irth. +s an infant, Moll lives on pulic charity, under the care of a
,ind widow who teaches her manners and needlewor,. She grows into a eautiful teenager
and is seduced at an early age. +andoned y her first lover, she is compelled to marry his
younger rother. )e dies after a few years, and she marries a draper who soon flees the
country as a fugitive from the law. She marries yet again and moves to +merica, only to find
out that her husand is actually her half-rother. She leaves him in disgust and returns to
England, where she ecomes the mistress of a man whose wife has gone insane. )e
renounces his affair with Moll after a religious e.perience.
Moll"s ne.t marriage offer is from a an,er whose wife has een cheating on him. Moll
agrees to marry him if he can otain a divorce, and meanwhile she travels to the country and
marries a rich gentleman in /ancashire. This man turns out to e a fraud--he is as poor as
she is--and they part ways to see, their fortunes separately. Moll returns to marry the an,er,
who y this time has succeeded in divorcing his wife. )e dies soon after, however, and Moll
is thrown ac, upon her own resources once again. She lives in poverty for several years
and then egins stealing. She is 0uite talented at this new "trade" and soon ecomes an
e.pert thief and a local legend. Eventually she is caught, imprisoned, and sentenced to
death. 1n prison at !ewgate, she reunites with her /ancashire husand, who has also een
arrested. They oth manage to have their sentences reduced, and they are transported to
the colonies, where they egin a new life as plantation owners. 1n +merica, Moll rediscovers
her rother and her son and claims the inheritance her mother has left her. *rosperous and
repentant, she returns with her husand to England at the age of seventy.