“Joys and sorrows of the famous Moll Flanders” Defoe in brief summary
In everyday life this work Defoe is called briefly: “Moll Flanders”, and with the subtitle title is even longer: “who was twelve years old woman, five times married, twelve years old thief, eight years exiled in Virginia, but at the end of her life became rich.”
Based on the fact that the story of her life was “written” by the heroine in 1683 and that she herself must at that time be seventy or seventy-one, determine the date of her birth: about 1613 Moll was born in prison, in Nyoget; her pregnant thief achieved a softening of the verdict and, after the birth of her daughter, was exiled to the colony, and the six-month-old girl was placed in the care of a “relative”. What this oversight was, you can guess: already in three years she wanders “with the gypsies”, lagging behind them, and the city authorities of Colchester define her to a woman who once knew the best times. She teaches orphans reading and sewing, instilling
The elderly teacher dies, the daughter’s heiress exposes the girl to the street, pocketing her money, and the fourteen-year-old Moll is taken to her “good real mistress”, from whom she was staying. Here she lived until she was seventeen. The situation is not entirely clear, the responsibilities for the house are not defined – most likely, she is the girlfriend of daughters, the named sister, “pupil”. A capable, reticent girl soon does not concede to the young ladies in dancing and playing the clavichord and is asleep, speaks French fluently, and sings even better than them.
Two children from this marriage, the newly-born widow leaves with her mother-in-law, lives comfortably, has admirers, but “cherishes” herself, setting the goal “only marriage, and moreover profitable.” She had time to assess what it means to be a “lady” in the conventional sense of the word, her claims increased: “if the merchant is, then let him be like a gentleman.” And such is. A loafer and a breeze, he lowers their insignificant state in less than a year, suffers bankruptcy and flees to France, leaving his wife to hide from creditors. The child born of them died. Straw widow moves to Mint. She takes a different name and since that time is called “Mrs. Flanders”. Its situation is unenviable: without friends, without a single relative, with a small, rapidly melting state. However, she soon finds a friend, ingenious intrigue, having helped one of the miserable wives to get husbands too picky captain. The agile seller spreads rumors about a rich “cousin,” and soon Moll from a pile of run-in fans chooses a loved one. She honestly warns the competitor of her hand about her insignificant dowry; he, believing that the sincerity of his feelings is being tested, declares that “money is a vanity.”
He really loves her, and therefore easily suffers the collapse of his calculations. The newlyweds are sailing to America – the husband has plantations there, it’s time to get on the business masterfully. In the same place, his mother lives in Virginia. From conversations with her, Moll learns that she came to America not with her own will. At home, she fell into the “bad society”, and from her death sentence, she was saved by pregnancy: with the birth of a child, she was sentenced to punishment, sent to the colony. Here she repented, corrected herself, married a widower owner, gave birth to him a daughter and a son – the current husband Moll. Some details of her story, and most importantly – the name, as she was called in England, lead Moll to a terrible guess: her mother-in-law is not someone other than her own mother. Naturally, the relationship with her husband-brother is farther and farther away. They, by the way, have two children, and the third one is pregnant. Unable to conceal a terrible discovery, she tells her mother-in-law, and then her husband. She does not want to return to England, which he now can not prevent. The poor fellow is experiencing a difficult experience, is close to insanity, twice encroaches on suicide.
Moll is returning to England. The load of tobacco, on which she hoped to get on her feet and get married well, was lost on the way, she had not enough money, nevertheless she often comes to the resort Bath, she lives beyond her means in anticipation of a “happy event.” This is represented in the person of a “real gentleman”, coming here to relax from a difficult home environment: he has a mentally ill wife. A friendly relationship develops between the “Batskii mister” and Moll. The fever that happened to him, when Moll emerged from him, makes them even closer, although the relationship remains implacably chaste for two whole years. Then she will become his guardian, they will have three children, they will move to London. Their settled, essentially married life lasted six years. A new illness of a roommate puts an end to this almost idyllic episode in the life of Moll. On the verge of death, “conscience began to speak in him,” he repented “in a windless and windy life,” and sent Moles a farewell letter with the edification of “correcting” also. Again it is a “free bird”, or more precisely, a game for a dowry hunter, since it does not prevent others from considering themselves a wealthy woman, with the means. But life in the capital is expensive, and Moll is inclined to the entreaties of a neighbor, women “from the northern counties,” to live near Liverpool. Previously, she is trying to somehow protect the outgoing money, but the bank clerk, having fought with the unfaithful wife, instead of business conversations, starts matrimonial and already proposes to form the whole form on the whole form “with the obligation to marry him, as soon as he achieves a divorce. “After laying aside this plot, Moll leaves for Lancashire. The companion introduces her to her brother, the Irish lord, blinded by his noble manners and the” fabulous magnificence “of techniques, Moll falls in love and marries. In a short time it turns out that” Lancashire husband “cheater: the” sister “who lied to him turned out to be his former mistress, for a decent bribe found a” rich “bride. The deceived, or rather deceived newlyweds, boil with noble indignation, but things are no longer correct. justifies the hapless wife: “This was a gentleman, who knew better times” With no means to arrange with it a more or less decent life, in debt, Jamie decides to leave Moll, but leave immediately goes out.: For the first time after a bitter love for the elder Colchester brother, with whom her misfortunes began, Moll loves selflessly. She touchingly tries to persuade her husband to go to Virginia, where, working honestly, you can live with little money. Part of her enthusiasm for her plans, Jemmy advises first to try his luck in Ireland. Under this plausible pretext he still leaves.
Moll comes back to London, is sad for her husband, adores sweet memories, until she discovers that she is pregnant. Born in a boarding house “for single women”, the baby is already established in order to care for a peasant woman from Hartford – and inexpensive, which is not without pleasure notes the mother who has got rid of “hard work”.
It is all the more relieved that correspondence with the bank clerk, which has not been interrupted all the time, brings good news: he obtained a divorce, the late wife who had a late life committed suicide. Having broken a decent time, Moll is getting married for the fifth time. One incident in the provincial hotel, where this precautionary event occurred, frightens Moll “to death”: from the window she sees riders entering the courtyard, one of them undoubtedly Jemmy. Those soon leave, but rumors of robbers, who robbed two carriages on the same day, strengthen the Moll in suspicion of fishing, as its recent pious man does.
A happy marriage with the clerk lasted five years. The mole day and night blesses the heavens for the mercy sent down, lamenting the former unrighteous life, fearing retribution for it. And the payoff comes: the banker could not bear the loss of a large sum, “plunged into apathy and died.” In this marriage, two children were born – and a curious thing: not only the reader is difficult to read all of her children, but Moll herself is confused – then it turns out that she has one son from the “last husband” whom she naturally defines as someone else’s. For Moll came hard times. She is already forty-eight, the beauty has faded, and, worst of all, for this active nature, who was able at a difficult moment to gather strength and show incredible vitality, she “lost all faith in herself.” More and more often visit her ghosts of hunger and poverty, until finally the “devil”
The second part of the book is a chronicle of the steady fall of the heroine, who became a successful, legendary thief. A “midwife” appears on the stage, eight years ago successfully liberating her from her son, who was born into a legal marriage with Jemmy, and then appears to remain until the end as “pestune”. When, after several thefts, Moll accumulates a “commodity”, which she does not know how to sell, she remembers the smart midwife with the funds and connections. She does not even imagine what a true decision this is: the receiver of undesirable children has now become a pennant, giving money for the pledging of things. Then it turns out that this is called differently: the gunner and the seller of stolen goods. A whole squad of unfortunate people works for her. One by one they get to Newgate, and there either to the gallows, or – if lucky – to the American exile. Moll is improbably long luck accompanies – mainly because she acts alone, relying only on herself, soberly calculating the measure of danger and risk. She is a talented fictional actress, she knows how to put people to her people, not averse to deceiving children’s trust. She changes appearance, adjusting to the environment, and some time “works” even in a man’s suit. As before, every penny was stipulated in marital contracts or in determining the content, so now Moll keeps a detailed accounting for his unjust accumulations. In criminal pursuits, she shows the quickly acquired grasp of a “business woman.” More and more often her reproofs of conscience are disturbed, all is more thoughtful, more sophisticated than her scam. Moll becomes a true professional in his business. She, for example, likes to show off “skill”, when he steals a horse that is absolutely not necessary to her in the city. She already has a considerable fortune, and it is quite possible to quit a shameful craft, but this thought visits her only after the past danger. Then she will not remember this, but she will not forget to mention the penitent minute in the registry of the registry, everything that speaks for her.
As one might expect, luck once betrays her, and, to the spiteful joy of the merchants languishing in Newgate, she makes them company. Of course, she also repents bitterly at the fact that she once succumbed to the temptation of the “devil” and that she did not have the strength to overcome the glamor when she did not threaten starvation yet, but the thought that she “got caught” and therefore the sincerity and depth of her repentance are doubtful. But the priest trusts her, by the efforts of “pestunya”, who solicits the substitution of the death penalty with a reference. The judges satisfy her petition, the more so that Moll officially passes as the first convicted. In prison, she meets her “Lancashire husband” Jemmy, which is not very amazed, knowing his occupation. However, witnesses to his robbery are not in a hurry to announce, the court is postponed,
In Virginia, Moll meets his already grown-up son, Humphrey, who is in possession of the state bequeathed by a long-deceased mother. She intelligently leads a plantation farm, condescendingly tolerates “master’s” habits of her husband, and at the right time, rich, they both return. to England “to spend the rest of our days in sincere repentance, lamenting about our bad life.”
The chronicle of life Moll Flanders ends with the words: “Written in 1683”. Surprisingly sometimes the dates converge: in the same year, 1683, as if to replace “Moll,” who descended from the stage, a ten-year-old Roxane was brought to England from France.
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