billybookblog

*contains spoilers* Born in Newgate Prison, and thus seemingly destined for a life that will lead her in due time back to where she first saw light and drew breath, the eponymous Moll Flanders is a triumph of characterisation. This remarkable novel, published in 1722, is presented by Defoe in the reflective voice of an elderly Flanders who is finally settled, secure and content after a somewhat long and arduous life of poverty, whoring, thievery and deceit, and so us readers experience what feels like a genuine first-hand report of the lifelong goings-on of a woman of true wits, wiles and courage. Defoe’s ability to step into the mind and shoes of his characters is so admirable, in fact, that he is therefore able to deal up-front with a wealth of issues and how they personally affect those to whom the reader can relate. Moll relays her position of disadvantage as a woman in mid-to-late seventeenth century Britain (Moll signs off in the late 1600s) as she discusses the offended reaction...

*contains spoilers* “I sing of knights and ladies, of love and arms, of courtly chivalry, of courageous deeds – all from the time when the Moors crossed the sea from Africa and wrought havoc in France.” From this first complex sentence we get more than just the explicit promise of tales of knights errant in the time of Charlemagne, as he fights off the Saracens laying siege to Paris – we also begin to understand the way in which Ariosto will tell his story: like a tapestry unfurling, episode by episode, with pockets of treats hidden in the cloth if you’re willing to look hard enough. The weight of the historical context of the piece is imbued in each fibre, and the temptation to quickly pop open your laptop to get to grips with the complex nature of Ariosto’s Europe is simply too much, but each venture into the past is as rewarding as the last – as is each page of this thoroughly beautiful piece. And it’s refreshingly forward thinking for its time. Consider how Ariosto constantly derid...