Moll Flanders | Section Summaries

Timeline of Events

• 1613

  Moll is born in Newgate prison to an unmarried thief.

  Section 1
• 1616

  Moll runs away from the gypsies and begins to live with a nurse.

  Section 1
• 1627

  The nurse dies and Moll goes to live with a wealthy family.

  Section 2
• Around 1630

  Moll succumbs to the flirtations of the oldest son of her adopted family and becomes his lover.

  Section 2
• Around the same time

  Moll marries the younger son of her adopted family when her lover refuses to marry her.

  Section 2
• Around 1636–38

  Moll and her second husband, a draper, live beyond their means.

  Section 3
• Around 1639

  Moll moves to Virginia with her third husband, not realizing he is her half-brother.

  Section 3
• 1642

  Moll tells her husband they are siblings; the marriage falls apart and she returns to England.

  Section 4
• A few years later

  In Bath, England, Moll becomes the mistress of a married gentleman and bears his child.

  Section 4
• Three years later

  After her lover leaves her, Moll falls in love with and marries Jemy in Lancashire.

  Section 5
• A month later

  Jemy leaves Moll pregnant; she goes to live with a midwife until the child is born.

  Section 6
• 1656–61

  Moll marries a banker; she is content until he dies penniless, after a business deal gone bad.

  Section 6
• 1661 and onward

  Moll lives a lucrative life of crime, until she is caught and sent to Newgate, where she was born.

  Section 7
• A few years later

  With the help of a minister, Moll reduces her death sentence to transportation to the colonies.

  Section 8
• A few months later

  Moll and Jemy arrive in Virginia; she reconnects with her son and receives her mother's estate.

  Section 9
• A few years later

  Moll and Jemy return to England to live a life of repentance in relative wealth.

  Section 9

Section Summaries Chart