May contain spoilers! Moll Flanders is an interesting read. I did enjoy it, but again and again I found myself questioning the decisions Moll makes throughout her life. At heart, all she seems to want is a stable marriage and financial security — a life in which she does not have to fear poverty. Yet she repeatedly ends up in unstable situations: returning to prostitution, marrying several times, and having many children with whom she has little to no contact. Strikingly, she appears to care deeply for only two or three of them, which makes her character both fascinating and unsettling. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I sometimes wondered whether Moll might have lived a happier life if she had stayed with her brother in Virginia instead of fleeing solely because their relationship was incestuous. The relationship did not necessarily have to remain sexual; perhaps a platonic companionship would have been enough to provide her with the stability she so desperately sought. At the same time, even considering this possibility feels uncomfortable, which highlights the moral tension at the heart of the novel. I also believe that, had it not been for her mother and the story she tells — one shaped by fear, guilt and punishment — Moll’s life might have taken a very different course. Without that influence, she may well have found happiness, even in circumstances that society would have condemned.