Moll Flanders · Chapter
Author's Preface explained
The preface defends the novel as a moral work, explaining that the story has been edited to remove lewdness and emphasize repentance.
What happens
The preface defends the novel as a moral work, explaining that the story has been edited to remove lewdness and emphasize repentance. It outlines the author's intent to provide instruction through the tale of a wicked life repented of, and highlights key episodes that serve as warnings and lessons for the reader.
Themes in this chapter
Morality and Hypocrisy
The preface emphasizes the moral purpose of the story, claiming that every wicked action is condemned and that the work is designed to recommend virtue and expose vice.
Crime and Repentance
The narrative is framed as the history of a wicked life repented of, with the penitent part presented as the most valuable and instructive.
Survival and Necessity
The preface highlights how diligence and industry can raise even the most desperate individuals, such as transported convicts, to a new and prosperous life.
Characters to notice
- Moll Flanders
The subject of the history, whose life story is presented as a moral example.
- The Governess
Mentioned as a figure whose life story is too long to include, having run through many roles including thief and penitent.
- Jemmy
Referred to as Moll's transported husband, a highwayman whose life story is also noted as too lengthy for this volume.
Key passages
“The author is here supposed to be writing her own history, and in the very beginning of her account she gives the reasons why she thinks fit to conceal her true name, after which there is no occasion to say any more about that.”
The author pretends that Moll is writing her own story, and she explains at the start why she hides her real name, so no further explanation is needed.
This establishes the fictional frame of the autobiography and the conceit of anonymity.
“All possible care, however, has been taken to give no lewd ideas, no immodest turns in the new dressing up of this story; no, not to the worst parts of her expressions.”
Great effort has been made to avoid any indecent or offensive language in the revised version of the story, even in its most scandalous parts.
This reflects the editor's claim of moral purification of the original manuscript.
“What can more exactly answer the rule laid down, to recommend even those representations of things which have so many other just objections leaving against them? namely, of example, of bad company, obscene language, and the like.”
What could better satisfy the requirement to endorse even those depictions that face valid criticisms, such as setting bad examples, showing bad company, or using obscene language?
The preface argues that the moral application justifies the inclusion of potentially objectionable material.