Moll Flanders

by Daniel Defoe

Moll Flanders: Style 1 key example

The Preface
Explanation and Analysis:

Defoe’s writing style in Moll Flanders is informal and direct. Defoe engages readers more with Moll’s strong narratorial voice (and far-fetched stories) than with ornamental or literary language, though he does include metaphors, similes, and other figurative language in key moments. Because Defoe is trying to convince readers that this book was written by an actual ex-convict who lived as a criminal on the streets of London for decades, he intentionally writes in a style that would capture such a person’s voice. This intention comes across in the Preface:

It is true, that the original of this Story is put into new Words, and the Stile of the famous Lady we here speak of is a little alter’d, particularly she is made to tell her own Tale in modester Words than she told it at first; the Copy which came first to Hand, having been written in Language more like one still in Newgate, than one grown Penitent and Humble, as she afterwards pretends to be.