本书由美国作家执笔，以最常用的单词写成，语言现代、地道、标准。原汁原味，而且通俗易懂，你躺在床上不用翻字典就可以津津有味地学英语。本书的女主人公摩尔·弗兰德斯生于伦敦西门监狱，母亲是盗窃犯。她从小被遗弃，孩提时被人收养，但她自小希望自立，用诚实的劳动争取在社会上生存的权利。不幸的是，在15岁时，她被主人家大少爷诱奸，后来嫁给小少爷为妻。小少爷死后，为生计所迫，她不得不开始做妓女。在这段时间里她先后嫁过5次，几次嫁给有妇之夫；在接下来的20年里，她又成为了有名的扒手，但最终在一次偷窃时被捕，并像她母亲一样被投入西门监狱……

　　摩尔·弗兰德斯生在新门监狱里，母亲是盗窃犯，即将被流放到弗吉尼亚。这个被遗弃的女孩子在富有同情心的科尔切斯特市长家中长大，对自己的身世一无所知。15岁时，遭诱奸，但是她后来体面地结了婚，扭转了命运。可是当第一个丈夫去世后，她一再婚嫁——先后嫁过五次，有几次甚至还嫁给了有妇之夫，并且为捞几个钱与各种人私通。有一次，她访问了弗吉尼亚，结果发现她眼下的丈夫竟是她的同母异父的兄弟，于是撇下他独自回到英国。在过了一段极端穷困的生活后，她竟成了一个非常高明的扒手但终究还是被抓住了，并和她母亲一样，被投入了新门监狱。在狱中，遇到了一位被宣判有罪的拦路抢劫犯詹姆斯，这人正是她许多前夫中最喜爱的一个，他俩都被发配到弗吉尼亚。他们设法带去了所有的不义之财。到了弗吉尼亚，摩尔发现自己还从母亲那里继承了一个种植园。从此她和詹姆斯在发家致富和痛改前非的气氛中度过余生。

INTRODUCTION

NOTE ON THE TEXT

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

A CHRONOLOGY OF DANIEL DEFOE

MOLL FLANDERS

Preface

THE FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES

OF MOLL FLANDERS

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Robinson Crusoe has often been referred to as a romance, but Moll Flanders, which followed it by three years, is widely taught and written about as the first English novel. Few other works of fiction have been the subject of so much critical debate in recent years; most widely canvassed has been the question of Defoe's artistic control. Are the numerous contradictions in the words, actions, and total character of Moll Flanders the result of deliberate authorial strategy,of unresolved ambivalences in Defoe's conception of hisheroine, or perhaps merely of hasty and unrevised cornposition by a wonderfully gifted yet somewhat primitive writer? Is Moll the object of Defoe's sustained conscious irony, or do we as readers perceive ironies which Defoe did not intend, and in which his own values are gravely implicated? Criticism preoccupied with the problem of irony has called attention to many inconsistencies that might otherwise have gone unnoticed in Moll's narrative; considerable research into the moral, economic, social, and literary background of Moll Flanders has been brought to bear on the discussion, and although such information has not settled the debate over irony, it too has fostered a sense of the book's complexities. At the same time, an unstated premise of much of. the debate has been that Defoe's artistry is vindicated if inconsistencies can be shown to have been deliberate. This view is not confined to critics of Defoe works of all kinds are prized today for containing paradoxes,untrustworthy personae, and other forms of calculated ambiguity--nor is it groundless; but it may shed less light on what is distinctive and valuable in Defoe than on the achievements of certain of his contemporaries, such as Swift and Pope. At all events, criticism that puts a premium on calculated ambiguity tends to conceive of both the creative process and the reading experience in highly intellectual terms, and although a predilection for subtlety and complexity is not the sole explanation of recent critical interest in Moll Flanders, one suspects that it does account for the comparative critical neglect of Robinson Crusoe, a greater work the chief merits of which lie elsewhere.P3-4