Born in Newgate prison and abandoned six months later, Moll''s drive to find and hold on to a secure place in society propels her through incest, adultery, bigamy, prostitution and a resourceful career as a thief (''the greatest Artist of my time'') before she is apprehended and returned to Newgate.

If Moll Flanders is on one level a Puritan''s tale of sin and repentance, through self-made, self-reliant Moll its rich subtext conveys all the paradoxes and amoralities of the struggle for property and power in Defoe''s newly individualistic society.