Daniel Defoe was an English trader, writer, pamphleteer and journalist. He is most famous for his novel "Robinson Crusoe", which is second only to the Bible in its number of translations. Moll Flanders details the life of the irresistible Moll and her struggles through poverty and sin in search of property and power. Born in Newgate Prison to a picaresque mother, Moll propels herself through marriages, periods of success and destitution, a trip to the New World and back, only to return to the place of her birth as a popular prostitute and brilliant thief. Daniel Defoe created a female character-narrator who recounts, from a woman's point of view, her life and adventures, portraying critically the society in which she lived.