Moll Flanders

Possibly the first novel in the English language, Moll Flanders is the fictional autobiography of a delightfully scandalous young female rogue. Born in Newgate Prison in seventeenth-century England, Moll is predestined to poverty and lawlessness, yet relentlessly driven to overcome her fate. Donning whatever mask suits her best in the moment, she appraises theft, prostitution, and bigamy only in terms of their profit potential, her indomitable will undaunted by her bad luck. Eventually, however, a moral sense begins to intrude. "Defoe's characters...[seem] as real as if we saw them in a mirror that was so clear it was invisible." -- Kenneth Rexroth Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), born in London as Daniel Foe, was a novelist, pamphleteer, journalist, and political spy. He is celebrated for his frank and dramatic realism in fiction and the accuracy, vigor, and lucidity of his journalism. Considered the father of the English novel, he was also the first author of ghost stories in English literature. He is best known for his novels Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. Nadia May is one of the pioneers of audiobook narration, with twenty-five years of recording and over 600 titles to her credit. Named one of AudioFile's Golden Voices, she has won fourteen Earphone Awards. She is also a well-known stage actor in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her husband and two badly behaved dogs.