P/S/129. Moll Flanders: character sketch and historical insight into female criminality

The paper reviews the novel “Moll Flanders” by Daniel Defoe discussing whether or not the heroine could be considered as a typical eighteenth-century female criminal. Socio-historical attitudes to women are reviewed arguing the influence of the fictional characters on women’s upbringing of the period, the motivations behind theft among females, the practices of pawn-broking, etc.