The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continueâd Variety for Three-score Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia at last grew Rich, livâd Honest, and died a Penitent.â So begins Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoeâs honest portrayal of one womanâs struggle for economic survival in an unsympathetic world. Told with uncompromising directness and an extraordinary empathy, it is, as Virginia Woolf once claimed, âone of the few English novels we can call indisputably greatâ.