Moll Flanders

Moll Flanders is an engaging character. I lost count of the number of husbands she accumulated, and the children she abandoned, but even as she lies, deceives, connives and steals her way through life, I cannot help liking her. It is her frankness, her complete awareness of her own failings and, ironically, her honesty.

Defoe provides us not only with one of literature's greatest characters, but also an exceptional account of the social conditions and thinking that prevailed in late 17th/early 18th century England. For all of its faults, and they're there to be found, “Moll Flanders” is a fascinating book, an essential read.