Moll Flanders

The story of Moll Flanders, the girl who was born in Newgate prison to her whore mother and dumped at the age 8 months to be looked after a succession of sisters in the 17th century England. Story of one misfortune after another each of which she wriggles her way out successfully through her wit and charm and little bit of crookedness.

Story of her whoredom, to marriage with succession of husbands, many of whom died, of her children innumerable there were and all of whom she abandoned, of incest with her husband who later turned out to be her brother and her life in crime for stealing so many items from people and stores. The story takes her from London to Virginia to Ireland to Lancashire back to London to Newgate and thence to Virginia. Looks like a full life story for one debauched woman of that time.

Defoe’s narrative comes of second best, when he rambles on continuously using long sentences sometimes running into paragraphs. None of Moll Flanders’ co characters are given names except the first two brothers Robin and Robert. Everyone is either the husband or Lancashire husband or brother etc.

Goodreads 3/5

The Old Man and the Sea

A classic from Ernest Hemingway for which he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Its a simple story told in a simple form, of an old man a fisherman Santiago and considered unlucky in fishing circles because he has gone 84 days without a catch. A young kid is with him and enamoured of him but his family forbids him to go fishing with the old man. The next day i.e. 85th day the old man ventures far out to the sea in search of that elusive catch and manages to snare a big fish but the fish takes him around the ocean for two days and two nights all the while battling the old man for his strength and endurance. The old man respects the fish, starts talking to the fish but by the third day, the fish also gets tired and starts circling closer to the boat which is when the old man kills the fish with his harpoon. He ties the fish with a lasso around the boat since it would have been impossible for him to haul it on the boat since he was tired and also he was alone. But when he killed the fish, the blood attracts some sharks nearby and they attack the fish relentlessly. It is a metaphorical book, you can look at it from the view of the old man or the fish. The old man battles bravely but the fish is also equal to him. He has a great sense of justice towards the fish. Also towards Joe DiMaggio the famous baseball player whom he adores and whose father was a fisherman. So when he loses the harpoon and the knife, he uses the club against the sharks the DiMaggio way. In all the old man kills 5 or more sharks. All the time he feels the absence of the boy, and talks aloud that if the boy had been there, it would have helped him. In the end he is left with only the head, the tail and the skeleton of the great marlin. Goodreads 5/5.

The picture is taken from the internet and used only for representational purposes and not with an intention of violating its copyright.