"Moll Flanders: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous" is a novel by E.M. Forster. It was published in 1722.
This is the story of Moll Flanders, written from her own memoirs. She was born in Newgate, experiences varied
life of becoming a whore for twelve years, a
wife for five times (once to her own brother), thief for twelve years, a
transported felon in Virginia for eight years… and at last, becomes rich, and lives honestly, and a penitent woman.
The story begins with Moll Flanders born in Newgate, where her
mother is under sentence of death for felony/theft. The hanging is delayed because she was pregnant with Moll for about seven months. Eventually the sentence is commuted to transportation to Virginia. Moll as an infant lived on charity, under the care of a kind widow who teaches her the basics of life and needlework. Becoming a beautiful teenager, she is also seduced at an early age, for example, by the son of one of the women who takes her in.
Moll leads an adventurous life. When her first lover abandons her, she
marries his younger brother. He dies after a few years and marries a draper who soon flees the country as a fugitive from the law. Alone, Moll marries yet again and moves to America, in Virginia, only to find her mother, and also discovers that her husband is actually her half-brother. Disgusted, she leaves him and her children and goes back to England. There, she becomes the mistress of a man with an insane wife. After a religious experience, he renounces his affair with her.
Moll meets a banker who offers her marriage. His wife apparently has been cheating on him. She agrees to marry him if he can obtain a divorce. Meanwhile in her travels to the country, she meets and marries a rich gentleman in Lancashire. Unfortunately, the man turns out to be a fraud. They part ways.
She returns to marry the banker, who by this time has succeeded in divorcing his wife. Unfortunately, he dies soon after, and Moll is on her own again. For several years she lives in poverty and turns to stealing. She becomes a successful thief. Eventually she is caught, and like her mother before her, she is imprisoned, sentenced to death, and transported to Virginia.
While at Newgate's prison, she reunites with her Lancashire husband, who has also been arrested. Both of them manage to have their sentences reduced, and they are transported to the colonies. Moll rediscovers her
brother and her son and claims the inheritance, a plantation that her mother has left her. She becomes a prosperous plantation owner. Repentant, she returns with her husband to England, where in comfort and serenity she looks back from her past life, aged 70.
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