{"product_id":"2940012309990","title":"The Fortunes \u0026 Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders","description":"MOLL FLANDERS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy true name is so well known in the records or registers at Newgate,\u003cbr\u003eand in the Old Bailey, and there are some things of such consequence\u003cbr\u003estill depending there, relating to my particular conduct, that it is\u003cbr\u003enot be expected I should set my name or the account of my family to\u003cbr\u003ethis work; perhaps, after my death, it may be better known; at present\u003cbr\u003eit would not be proper, no not though a general pardon should be\u003cbr\u003eissued, even without exceptions and reserve of persons or crimes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is enough to tell you, that as some of my worst comrades, who are\u003cbr\u003eout of the way of doing me harm (having gone out of the world by the\u003cbr\u003esteps and the string, as I often expected to go ), knew me by the name\u003cbr\u003eof Moll Flanders, so you may give me leave to speak of myself under\u003cbr\u003ethat name till I dare own who I have been, as well as who I am.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have been told that in one of neighbour nations, whether it be in\u003cbr\u003eFrance or where else I know not, they have an order from the king, that\u003cbr\u003ewhen any criminal is condemned, either to die, or to the galleys, or to\u003cbr\u003ebe transported, if they leave any children, as such are generally\u003cbr\u003eunprovided for, by the poverty or forfeiture of their parents, so they\u003cbr\u003eare immediately taken into the care of the Government, and put into a\u003cbr\u003ehospital called the House of Orphans, where they are bred up, clothed,\u003cbr\u003efed, taught, and when fit to go out, are placed out to trades or to\u003cbr\u003eservices, so as to be well able to provide for themselves by an honest,\u003cbr\u003eindustrious behaviour.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHad this been the custom in our country, I had not been left a poor\u003cbr\u003edesolate girl without friends, without clothes, without help or helper\u003cbr\u003ein the world, as was my fate; and by which I was not only exposed to\u003cbr\u003every great distresses, even before I was capable either of\u003cbr\u003eunderstanding my case or how to amend it, but brought into a course of\u003cbr\u003elife which was not only scandalous in itself, but which in its ordinary\u003cbr\u003ecourse tended to the swift destruction both of soul and body.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut the case was otherwise here.  My mother was convicted of felony for\u003cbr\u003ea certain petty theft scarce worth naming, viz.  having an opportunity\u003cbr\u003eof borrowing three pieces of fine holland of a certain draper in\u003cbr\u003eCheapside.  The circumstances are too long to repeat, and I have heard\u003cbr\u003ethem related so many ways, that I can scarce be certain which is the\u003cbr\u003eright account.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHowever it was, this they all agree in, that my mother pleaded her\u003cbr\u003ebelly, and being found quick with child, she was respited for about\u003cbr\u003eseven months; in which time having brought me into the world, and being\u003cbr\u003eabout again, she was called down, as they term it, to her former\u003cbr\u003ejudgment, but obtained the favour of being transported to the\u003cbr\u003eplantations, and left me about half a year old; and in bad hands, you\u003cbr\u003emay be sure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is too near the first hours of my life for me to relate anything\u003cbr\u003eof myself but by hearsay; it is enough to mention, that as I was born\u003cbr\u003ein such an unhappy place, I had no parish to have recourse to for my\u003cbr\u003enourishment in my infancy; nor can I give the least account how I was\u003cbr\u003ekept alive, other than that, as I have been told, some relation of my\u003cbr\u003emother's took me away for a while as a nurse, but at whose expense, or\u003cbr\u003eby whose direction, I know nothing at all of it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe first account that I can recollect, or could ever learn of myself,\u003cbr\u003ewas that I had wandered among a crew of those people they call gypsies,\u003cbr\u003eor Egyptians; but I believe it was but a very little while that I had\u003cbr\u003ebeen among them, for I had not had my skin discoloured or blackened, as\u003cbr\u003ethey do very young to all the children they carry about with them; nor\u003cbr\u003ecan I tell how I came among them, or how I got from them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was at Colchester, in Essex, that those people left me; and I have a\u003cbr\u003enotion in my head that I left them there (that is, that I hid myself\u003cbr\u003eand would not go any farther with them), but I am not able to be\u003cbr\u003eparticular in that account; only this I remember, that being taken up\u003cbr\u003eby some of the parish officers of Colchester, I gave an account that I\u003cbr\u003ecame into the town with the gypsies, but that I would not go any\u003cbr\u003efarther with them, and that so they had left me, but whither they were\u003cbr\u003egone that I knew not, nor could they expect it of me; for though they\u003cbr\u003esend round the country to inquire after them, it seems they could not\u003cbr\u003ebe found.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was now in a way to be provided for; for though I was not a parish\u003cbr\u003echarge upon this or that part of the town by law, yet as my case came\u003cbr\u003eto be known, and that I was too young to do any work, being not above\u003cbr\u003ethree years old, compassion moved the magistrates of the town to order\u003cbr\u003esome care to be taken of me, and I became one of their own as much as\u003cbr\u003eif I had been born in the place.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47182466220272,"sku":"2940012309990","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012309990_p0.jpg?v=1763554795","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012309990","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}