Audiobook · read by volunteers
Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731)
Read by Denny Sayers (d. 2015), miette, Nocturna, JemmaBlythe, Kristin LeMoine, Chip, Elizabeth Palmer, Nikolle Doolin, chriss the girl, Kirsten Ferreri · 23 chapters · 13 h 31
About the book
Moll Flanders is born in Newgate prison, and from the first page she must rely on her wits. Her story, told in her own voice, follows her through a long life of marriages, affairs, thefts and narrow escapes, in London, in the English provinces and across the Atlantic. Daniel Defoe gives her an irresistible mixture of frankness, practicality and occasional remorse, and he fills the book with details of money, goods and bargains. Is she a victim, a survivor or a criminal? The book leaves that for you to decide. Twenty-three sections and over thirteen hours, shared among ten readers, offer a vivid portrait of early eighteenth century England and one of the earliest great novels in the language. Her voice is unforgettable, and so is her world.
Introduction
Daniel Defoe, who lived from 1660 to 1731, wrote this novel in 1722, after his work as a journalist and pamphleteer. By then Defoe had become recognised as a novelist, with the success of Robinson Crusoe in 1719. His political work was tapering off at this point, due to the fall of both Whig and Tory party leaders with whom he had been associated. His Whig views are nevertheless evident in the story of Moll.
The full title of the novel tells part of its story: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, who was born in Newgate and, during a life of continued variety for threescore years, besides her childhood, was twelve years a whore, five times a wife, twelve years a thief, and so on. The title announces a story of survival in a world where women had few options, and it sets the tone for the narrative, which is a fictional memoir presented as the confession of a repentant sinner.
The novel is sometimes read as a social document, because Defoe pays close attention to the economy of the period, its prisons, its colonies and its marriage market. At the same time, it is a work of psychological interest, since Moll is a narrator whose motives are mixed and whose self-presentation invites the reader to question her honesty.
This LibriVox recording has twenty-three sections, with titles drawn from the opening words of each section, and lasts about thirteen and a half hours. Ten volunteers take part, including Denny Sayers, miette and Nocturna. Moll’s voice is direct, wry and strangely modern, which makes the long recording easier to follow than you might expect for a book of its age.
Public domain
Daniel Defoe died in 1731: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text