Moll Flanders

I did enjoy reading Moll Flanders, but I found the book to be a bit long and always repeating the same actions over and over again. The reader was always able to expect the same action from here constantly, for she never seemed to think of different ways of breaking the law. One other thing that bothered me about the outlay of the book was that there were no chapters, I found it harder to read the book with no pauses in the stories. The constant action that was taking place was hard to stop reading, for when you turned the page the sentence was still continuing.

I found it easier in some way to understand the story because of the crime literature that we read in the last class. The crimes that she committed in the book were easily compared to the Newgate Calendar stories, the similar crimes and punishments.

I do remember in the first class Prof. Jones saying it was hard to know how many children Moll Flanders had in her time. I did try and attempt to count the number of children while reading the book, I came to a number of 1o. More than likely that number might not be accurate since it was hard at times to follow the characters and her actions. I could not believe how many children that she had, and how easily she abandons them without it seems any remorse. The remorse is really isn’t seen till she meets up with ones of her sons in Virginia.

The one things that did perplex me in the novel was the use of the word “viz” and how when she identified a person she would say “Mr. B______”. We never had the chance to really meet other characters, since she chooses not to introduce them. It is possible why she didn’t introduce the characters this way because she didn’t want to discredit the person. I’m not sure what the “viz” would mean, can anyone explain?

1 comment September 24, 2007