Daniel Defoe's life was packed with incident and drama. Born in the year of the Restoration of the Monarchy after the English Civil War, he remained a nonconformist throughout his life, actively rebelled against James II, travelled the country as a spy for King William and Queen Mary, worked in Scotland on active behalf of the historic Union of Scotland and England, helped launch the South Sea Company, was bankrupted frequently as a businessman, was imprisoned for libel and debt, and died a pauper.
Daniel Defoe led an exciting and indeed precarious life. A provocative pamphleteer and journalist, a spy and double agent, a revolutionary and a dreamer, he was variously hunted by mobs with murderous intent and treated as a celebrity by the most powerful leaders of the country. Imprisoned many times, pilloried and reviled by his enemies, through it all he managed to produce some of the most significant literature of the eighteenth century. Daniel Defoe: Master of Fictions is the first biography to view Defoe's complex life through the angle of vision that is most important to us as modern readers--his career as a writer. Maximillian Novak, a leading authority on Defoe, ranges from the writer's earliest collection of brief stories, which he presented to his future wife under the sobriquet Bellmour, to his Compleat English Gentleman, left unpublished at his death. Novak illuminates such works as Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, novels that changed the course of fiction in their time and have remained towering classics to this day. And he reveals a writer who was a superb observer of his times--an age of dramatic historical, political, and social change. Indeed, through his many pamphlets, newspapers, books of travel, and works of fiction, Defoe commented on everything from birth control to the price of coal, and from flying machines to the dangers of the plague. Beautifully and authoritatively written, this is the first serious, full-scale biography of Defoe to appear in a decade. It gives us, for the first time, a full understanding of the thought and personal experience that lie behind some of the great works of English literature.
Almost 300 years ago this fascinating novel was published with probably the most long title: The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account how he was at last as Strangely Deliver’d by Pyrates. Written by Himself. For hundreds of years this book impresses the imagination by displaying of courage, ingenuity, vitality of the person, caught in such a binding that it is difficult to imagine. But still it is so exciting to imagine, while reading a book in a cozy room. Pretty illustrations by Vladislav Kolomoets provide you with new impressions from reading this legendary story.
The short story is often viewed as an inferior relation to the Novel. But it is an art in itself. To take a story and distil its essence into fewer pages while keeping character and plot rounded and driven is not an easy task. Many try and many fail. In this series we look at short stories from many of our most accomplished writers. Miniature masterpieces with a lot to say. In this volume we examine some of the short stories of Daniel Defoe.Daniel Defoe is most well-known for his classic novels Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. Born circa 1659, he was also a journalist, a pamphleteer, a businessman, a spy ... and a writer of short stories. His life was long and colourful, and the breadth of his work, still highly regarded, is infused with similar vigor.In these short stories, Defoe succinctly emblazons his style upon subjects as diverse as apparitions, pirates, and politics. Defoe unfortunately often ran up large bills which could then not be repaid. He was often most seen on Sundays when bailiffs and the like legally could make no move on him. Allegedly whilst hiding from creditors he died on April 24th 1731. He was interred in Bunhill Fields, London.These stories are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Word Of Mouth. Many samples are at our youtube channel http: //www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores. They are read for you by Richard Mitchley & Ghizela RoweIndex Of TitlesThe Apparition Of Mrs VealCaptain MissonDickery Cronke
The Shipwreck Collection includes four novels: Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Treasure Island, and The Island of Doctor Moreau. Robinson Crusoe follows the sole survivor of a shipwreck on a deserted island. Confronted by hunger and the elements, Crusoe builds a home, grows crops, tames wild animals, and survives cannibals and mutineers. Gulliver's Travels shows how one man can be shipwrecked, then abandoned, then attacked by strangers, then attacked by his own crew. Gulliver believes what he is told, never perceives deeper meanings, is an honest man, and expects others to be honest. Treasure Island follows the adventures of a cabin boy named Jim Hawkins. Hawkins is in for the adventure of a lifetime, as he braves dangerous waters, lives through a mutiny, and searches for buried treasure. In The Island of Dr Moreau Edward Prendick finds himself shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean, but is soon rescued by a passing boat. He is taken to the island home of Doctor Moreau, who creates human-like hybrid beings from animals.
