Q 01/05

In Defoe's novel, Moll Flanders is born inside which notorious London prison while her mother awaits punishment?

A) Marshalsea

B) Newgate

C) Bridewell

D) The Fleet

Answer · why

B) Newgate

Newgate was a jail Defoe knew from the inside: he was held there himself in 1703 over a satirical pamphlet about religious Dissenters.

Q 02/05

Defoe published Moll Flanders three years after which castaway novel had made him a famous author?

A) Gulliver's Travels

B) Treasure Island

C) Robinson Crusoe

D) The Coral Island

Answer · why

C) Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe ran through four editions before the end of 1719, a late triumph for a writer who was already in his late fifties.

Q 03/05

In the American colonies, Moll Flanders discovers that her third husband is actually which close relative?

A) Her uncle

B) Her cousin

C) Her godfather

D) Her brother

Answer · why

D) Her brother

Her brother, strictly a half-sibling: her mother-in-law's tale of being shipped out from an English jail reveals that the two share a mother.

Q 04/05

By which old legal custom does Moll Flanders's condemned mother win a delay to her hanging?

A) Benefit of clergy

B) Pleading her belly

C) Claiming sanctuary

D) Turning king's evidence

Answer · why

B) Pleading her belly

Pleading her belly won Moll's mother a respite of about seven months, and once the baby arrived her sentence was changed to exile in the colonies.

Q 05/05

Which British actor played Moll's Lancashire husband in the 1996 ITV serial of Moll Flanders scripted by Andrew Davies?

A) Colin Firth

B) Sean Bean

C) Daniel Craig

D) Ewan McGregor

Answer · why

C) Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig played the charming fortune-hunter a full decade before he first appeared as James Bond in Casino Royale.