The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders &c. (1722) by Daniel Defoe is a picaresque adventure-filled life story of a tenacious, smart, beautiful, and charismatic woman who aspires to be a lady but who begins her life as the daughter of a convict in Newgate prison.

At various points engaging in prostitution, incest, theft, cons and machinations, and ultimately finding penitence, security, and true love, is Moll Flanders an amoral criminal or a sympathetic woman trying to survive harsh circumstances and better her life?