Sir Walter Scott, Swfit and Defoe

Moll Flanders-Daniel Defoe

Moll Flanders is a novel I truly love. It is fun and funny and truly absorbing as it chronicles the lusty life of the adventuress, Moll Flanders as she scrambles to survive on the streets of 18th Century London. My first exposure to the story was through the 1960s movie entitled "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders" starring Kim Novak. It was a bawdy rollicking story of woman trying to survive on the streets in the "dog eat dog" world of 18th Century London. Years later I saw another movie based on the book called Moll Flanders with Robin Wright, Stockard Channing and Morgan Freeman. This version was an excellent adaptation of Defoe's book and after watching it, I knew it was time to read the novel. I adored it.

In my opinion Daniel Defoe was a feminist. Up to this point no one had bothered to write about women. Defoe took on the task with respect and humor. The reader loves Moll even though she makes questionable choices in her quest to survive. He does not ask the reader to pity her, in fact, he presents her as a strong and capable woman. She often steals and gives in to her lusty impulses, but she is real and very likeable. In the end she is redeemed, but Defoe does not preach about it. He presents it merely as fact. If he had been moralizing, he would have most certainly had her punished in the end. Instead he presents, at least to this 21st Century reader, the story of a strong, funny resourceful survivor who comes out well in the end.
Sadly, one hundred years later, the Victorian era struck and women were suddenly being portrayed as weak, vulnerable simpering fools and the "damsel in distress" was born. I adore Charles Dickens but he could have taken a lesson or two from Daniel Defoe and given his female characters a little back bone.
Now that I think about it,  more than any other book, Moll Flanders has influenced my second novel, The Pride of the King. That too is about a lusty adventuress who, in spite of her bad choices, always comes out on top. Not a bad way to lead an interesting life.