Moll Flanders

...and why you should read it.

It's set in the 1600s, however the language is not too 1600s-y, it's still nice and accessible to the modern reader, so don't let that put you off.

The story itself is fabulous! Moll is an orphan, born in Newgate Prison. She is first taken in to a respectable family as an act of charity, where she gains a very good education and finally marries one of the sons. (After she's been mistress to the other son for some time.)
The rest of the story very colourfully describes how Moll survives as a woman alone in London after the death of this first husband. She marries for money, becomes a mistress several times, does a bit of pick-pocketing, shoplifts, works as a con-artist and many other things!
I don't want to spoil the story, but needless to say, Moll eventually ends up back in Newgate, as a prisoner this time, when she is finally caught.

My little penguin copy says on the back;

"Five times married, a whore and a thief, her business is survival - and survive she does, both a prisoner and a manipulator of her circumstances, whose timely spiritual regeneration in prison, she tells us, is the best part of the story."

Trust me, read it, it's fab! Think Oliver Twist meets Joanna Trollope.

Download it free from Project Gutenberg here.
(You can also read it online, it's out of copywrite hence why you can get it for free!)