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"Moll Flanders" is the classic and tragic picaresque morality tale of its title character. Moll, the daughter of a convict is driven by a singular ambition, to raise her station in life, by any means necessary. In the process of trying to lift herself out of squalor and become a lady she resorts to thievery, adultery, prostitution, child neglect, and incest. One of Defoe's best and most loved works, «Moll Flanders», while likely written to predominantly titillate its audience, is ultimately a tale of remorse and redemption.

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Written by Daniel Defoe nearly sixty years after the bubonic plague of 1665 swept through London, “A Journal of the Plague Year”, published in 1722, is an historically accurate account of one man’s experiences during a year of the Great Plague. In astonishing detail, Defoe takes readers through a vivid and horrific tour of the neighborhoods, houses, and streets that have drastically changed as the city is ravaged by the plague. The bustle of business and errands gives way to doors marked with the cross to signify a house of death, as well as the dead-carts transporting those destined for the mass graves, as the number of victims rises to nearly 100,000. As the epidemic progresses and the narrator encounters more stories of isolation and horror, Defoe reveals his masterful balance as both a historical and imaginative writer. He is able to convey both the massive scale of the tragedy and the deeply personal stories of the victims and survivors. Believed to have been based on the journals of his uncle Henry Foe, Defoe’s classic is widely regarded as one of the most accurate and detailed accounts of the Great Plague and its toll on London’s citizens. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First published in 1722, Daniel Defoe’s “Moll Flanders” is the classic and tragic morality tale of its title character. Based in part on the true story of a female criminal that Defoe met in Newgate Prison, Moll Flanders is the daughter of a convict and is driven by a singular ambition, to raise her station in life, by any means necessary. In the process of trying to lift herself out of squalor and become a lady she is married several times, abandons her many children, and eventually resorts to thievery and prostitution in her constant quest for a better life. Bad luck and poor judgment plague Moll at every turn and at one point she discovers she has inadvertently married her own half-brother. Eventually convicted of theft, Moll is transported to the new world where she finally begins to turn her life around. Moll is able to redeem herself, repair many of her fractured relationships, and finds love and a new life of prosperity in the Colonies. One of Defoe’s best and most loved works, “Moll Flanders,” is both the story of a fascinating and complicated woman and ultimately a tale of remorse and redemption. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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"Robinson Crusoe" relates the story of a man's shipwreck on a desert island for 28 years and his subsequent adventures. Throughout its episodic narrative, Crusoe's struggles with faith are apparent as he bargains with God in times of life-threatening crises, but time and again he turns his back after his deliverances. He is finally content with his lot in life, separated from society, following a more genuine conversion experience.

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One of the earliest picaresque novels in English, Moll Flanders has both captivated and shocked countless readers since it was first published in 1722. A masterpiece of fiction, written in the form of an autobiographical memoir, the novel describes Moll on the original title page as having been «Born in Newgate … 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, liv'd Honest, and died a Penitent.»Daniel Defoe's roguish heroine tells the scandalous facts of her adventurous life with such simple and straightforward sincerity and with such a wealth of intimate detail that the reader is soon convinced that Moll must, indeed, be an authentic person.Having been imprisoned for political offenses and having experienced severe economic losses in his own life, Defoe demonstrates early on in this novel how circumstances and a fear of poverty can drive one into a life of crime. He writes with authority when Moll speaks of poverty as a «frightful spectre.»An excellent candidate for classroom use, this classic of 18th-century fiction will entertain and enlighten general readers as well.

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The haunting cry of «Bring out your dead!» by a bell-ringing collector of 17th-century plague victims has filled readers across the centuries with cold terror. The chilling cry survives in historical consciousness largely as a result of this classic 1722 account of the epidemic of bubonic plague — known as the Black Death — that ravaged England in 1664–1665.Actually written nearly 60 years later by Daniel Defoe, the Journal is narrated by a Londoner named «H. F.,» who allegedly lived through the devastating effects of the pestilence and produced this eye witness account. Drawing on his considerable talents as both journalist and novelist, Defoe reconstructed events both historically and fictionally, incorporating realistic, memorable details that enable the novel to surpass even firsthand accounts in its air of authenticity. This verisimilitude is all the more remarkable since Defoe was only five years old when the actual events took place. Long a staple of college literature courses, A Journal of the Plague Year will fascinate students, teachers, and general readers alike.

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Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1660 – 1731) includes Volume 1: The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and Volume 2: The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. <br><br>Robinson Crusoe is a classic children&#39;s novel based on a fictional autobiography of Robinson who sets sailing and becomes shipwrecked. He encounters pirates, cannibals and spends years as a castaway on a tropical island. The novel was first published in 1719 and is considered today as one of the world&#39;s best classics! This Mermaids Classics edition also includes the sequel to Robinson Crusoe which is titled &quot;The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe&quot; where Robinson returns to the island where he was shipwrecked, adventures in Madagascar, Southeast Asia, China and Siberia.<br><br>Mermaids Classics, an imprint of Mermaids Publishing brings the very best of old classic literature to a modern era of digital reading by producing high quality books in ebook format. All of the Mermaids Classics epublications are reproductions of classic antique books that were originally published in print format, mostly over a century ago and are now republished in digital format as ebooks. Begin to build your collection of digital books by looking for more literary gems from Mermaids Classics.

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Daniel Defoe's last novel «Roxana» is perhaps his darkest. Using his «fallen woman» archetype established in his seminal work «Moll Flanders», Defoe tracks the mercurial life of an unnamed female protagonist who adopts the pseudonym Roxana. The story of her rise and fall is a captivating account of the destructive powers of greed and seduction. Roxana begins as a deserted wife with five children. She chooses a life of prostitution for sustenance, and discovers opportunity to climb the social and economic ranks. Quickly Roxana finds herself deeply immersed in a life of excess and vice. She swings from powerful suitor to suitor, acquiring fortunes from each. Her sexual exploits transform her into a self-empowered economically independent social climber. Yet this liberated life comes with its prices. Defoe's «Roxana» is a bold and powerful narrative—one that begs for an inquiry into the role of sex and power in a capitalistic society. An engrossing novel, «Roxana» remains a classic of English letters and one of Defoe's finest.

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The classic tale of shipwrecked adventure, Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel «Robinson Crusoe» is the fictional autobiography of its title character. When cast ashore upon a tropical island, Robinson Crusoe must use his survival skills to find food and shelter and evade the native cannibals. A captivating tale of action and adventure, based in part on the real life adventures of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived more than four years on an island in the Pacific, «Robinson Crusoe» is regarded by some as the first novel of the English language.

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This novel is a fictionalized account of one man's experiences of the year 1665, in which the Great Plague struck the city of London. Although it purports to have been written only a few years after the event, it actually was written in the years just prior to the book's first publication in March 1722. Defoe was only five years old in 1665, and the book itself was published under the initials 'H. F.' The novel probably was based on the journals of Defoe's uncle, Henry Foe.

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