Moll Flanders, published in 1772, was among the first novels to appear in English, and contributed to the development of the novel form. It relates the autobiography of its unrestrained heroine, who was born in Newgate Prison and spent parts of her life as a harlot, a wife, a thief, a convict, and finally a prosperous penitent in the American colonies. Moll is one of the great picaresque figures in literature, whose vitality and gusto remain undiminished by the passage of time.