Daniel Defoe Books

A General History of the Pyrates is good reading! Great history on famous pirates!

I compared this book with the pirate history published by Captain Charles Johnson. Daniel Defoe is definitely Captain Johnson. The one dissimilarity in the History of the pirate Gow is Johnson says he is John Smith alias Gow, while Daniel Defoe calls him the pirate Gow aka Smith. Gow is derived from the Erse name Gobha which translates to Blacksmith or Smith. So both version are in fact correct. But why the difference? Maybe editorial?

"Under the Black Flag", and all the rest of the pirate history books used this one as their basic reference. It's a lot of material, and took me several months to read as I'd read single captain's history before turning the lights out for the night. The stories are not watered down, there is enough murder, mayhem, robbery, thuggery, and general bad treatment of one person against another to fill years of "Pirates of the XXXX" movies with Johnny Depp scripts.

I did like this book, even though after about the 200th captain's adventure its sort of repetitive narrative. The other interesting thing was that amid this culture of mayhem there was a strong democratic theme. Captains and bosun's are elected positions on most of the boats! Colonies elect a "governor", they have jury trials to settle disputes and yet the economy revolves around ripping off passing merchant boats.

As for whether "Captain Johnson" or "Daniel Defoe" wrote the text, I can't tell. But it doesn't matter, there are no copyright royalties to be paid to the author at this point. The stories are just as good. Anyone who is really interested in Pirates would enjoy this book. (Although I got my copy from the public library.) I especially found the history of Annie Bonny and Mary Reed to be absolute soap opera story. History is stranger than fiction.

(Oh and read Richard Zack's book on Captain Kidd, Defoe got it wrong, and Zack's found the original documents to explain what really happened.) Zack's book is easier to read too.

This book is written in a different kind of English than we what are used to. As such, this book is amazing. Filled to the brim with pirate information, boat information, etc, this is a good book for anyone who really is interested in pirates.
For those who are interested in pirates purely at a humorous level, this isn't the book you should go with. This is packed with real information in older English, and is really intended for those who wish to know more about pirates and how they lived.

This book helped my understanding of pirates greatly! I recommend to anyone who is interested in trying to know more about those scalawags of the sea.

The dearth of primary sources have encouraged "scholars" to grasp onto the Furbanks / Owens short de-atrribution, which is basically an ad hominem attack against the preeminent 20th century Defoe scholar Moore. The tales in this book are wild and outlandish, much like Defoe's life. Full of get-rich quick schemes, bankruptcy, and being pilloried, he did not lack for his own source material. So enjoy the tales, picture a proto-democracy where illiterate desperate men create "articles" of piracy that would make a modern day attorney proud, read some more Defoe and make up your own mind. Clear sailing!

Several years ago, I read a review essay on Defoe's book which startled me... apparently it was considered to be the powerful and influential "Christian Classic" of its day. I read "Robinson Crusoe" as a youth in the standard abridged form. I didn't, of course, realize that the abridgement involved the removal of all the philisophical and theological reflection of the protagonist.
This is, as it was at its original printing, a serious book for adults.
this is not a book about mere "survival." It is a man searching for the meaning in his life before God, who has allowed him to live when the entire crew accompanying him has perished in a storm. Though I do not share the heavy predestinarian bent of the theology, I fully respect the honesty of (Defoe's) reflection through Crusoe. this is a spiritual journey from which we may larn much.
This is serious reading of the very best type. Rewarding to the end. In an earlier time (and not much earlier), you would not have been considered to be either educated or cultured without reading this book.
Please, read and enjoy.
Rich Moore

If you're interested in a good (and cheap) critical edition of Gulliver's travels, I strongly recommend the Norton Critical edition. I ordered it by Amazon and my copy was received in a couple of weeks

After reading Glyn Williams' trenchant 'The Prize Of All The Oceans' I had an overwhelming desire to read this classic once again. I first read it when I was a mere 10 year old and it completely mesmerized me; I find that it still held the same power over me thirty years later. It is difficult to put this tale down once the title character becomes a castaway on the "island of despair" (as Crusoe refers to it) and he begins the battle against the odds to survive. Facing extreme tropical heat, torrential storms, a dreadful loneliness and the struggle to master some of the simplest of skills we take for granted Crusoe wages his one-man crusade for survival. Beginning his desolate existence steeped in woeful self-pity he slowly realizes through a series of trying circumstances, devotional reading of the Bible and finally relief from his isolated state that the experience proves to be one of reverie. In the process Crusoe becomes quite possibly the most inspirational figure to spring forth from the pages of literature.

Though it is annually listed by literature scholars as one of the 100 finest works of fiction, today primarily adolescents read Defoe's enduring tale as part of their required reading for school; very few others rarely bother with this nearly three century old tale. 'Robinson Crusoe' it seems is a classic awaiting a renaissance of rediscovery by adults who regularly read for either leisure or as a part of continuing education. While the novel's approach to morality may seem a bit old fashioned by today's contemporary standards, the character's awakening to wisdom, inner strength and faith will inspire any reader of any age. Crusoe's ability to steel himself against the onslaught of natural elements, his own self doubts and finally a band of savages who discover his "island empire" should win over even the most jaded of us. This Norton Critical Edition is the perfect package to gain a deep appreciation for this masterpiece of the English language. So do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book today and transport yourself back to your youth and also to a time long past. It's a journey you won't regret taking.

Unfortunately, this book suffered the fate of many other masterpieces: be classified in the "children" bookshelf. That guarantees most editions will be abridged, censored, and forgotten, since kids today read very little and waste their time playing with horrendous japanese toys. Enough lecturing. This is a book about a man who, yes, goes through many adventures, and in the way finds himself. This is not the story of a man who goes through pleasant experiences, enjoying adventure. He suffers very much finding himself alone for many years, having to survive by himself in the midst of a desert island. The book is narrated in the first person, so it's a long monologue by a truly lonely man. His reflections are deep and moving. It's good that this is a complete and unabridged edition, since the first part is usually severed from the rest, which is a pity because it puts the whole story in context. This is a fun but also an interesting reading.

This is a simple, beautifully written story of a young man who rejects the advice of his father and pursues a life at sea. His fate, of course, is to dwell alone for many years on an isolated island. The main point, however, is his slow realization that, in finding God and religion, his "cup is not half empty but half full". This is NOT a childs book and should be read by those in their 30's and above...otherwise the message may be lost on youth.

I agree with a previous reviewer that Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Year" is a journalistic history, not fiction. He describes an event that happened when he was only, I think, an infant. He has used family and other accounts of the last great epidemic of the Black Death to strike England. It is readable and instructive.

To me, the most interesting part of the tale, is the 'knowledge' people had of this disease before knowledge of microbes and their transmission. Animals, especially dogs, cats and rats, were identified as possible transmission agents and were shot on sight. Infected people are quarantined in their homes along with their relatives. Although these homes were guarded by armed people, breakouts from quarantine were common. The disease spread and uninfected villages on the outskirts of London, themselves set out guards, preventing panicked refugees from entering and infecting their towns. An interesting tale of desperation.

Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico.

Although fictional, "Journal" provides a somewhat historical bird's eye view into the tragedy of the plague that affected Londoners for a period of a year. The book is interesting and detailed, and qualifies itself as one of the earliest known Novels. DeFoe is most recognized for Robinson Crusoe, written in 1719.

Since Daniel Defoe was only four years old in 1664, A Journal of the Plague Year is a novel rather than a journal. It was written as a pamphlet to warn people of what to expect and how best to defend themselves should another plague strike. What makes any book written in the distant past interesting is the glimpse it affords into the mentality of the people of the time. This was the plague that caused Isaac Newton leave London for the country, where he purportedly started the work that led to the invention of calculus and the laws of gravity. We can see the struggle between clear thinking and self-destructive superstition in the thoughts of Defoe's character.

On the one hand he insists the plague is doubtless "stroke from Heaven, a messenger of His vengeance, and a loud call to repentance," but in the next paragraph he understands that the plague arises from natural causes, propagated by natural means." So he concludes that God is using natural causes to exact his vengeance, even though he also says he must be allowed to believe than all who got sick received it in the ordinary way of infection. So he speaks disparagingly of fatalistic Christians, and especially Moslems, who ignore simple safety precautions because they are convinced that only those whom God wishes to will get the plague. Though convinced that the plague is God's way of punishing the wicked, he acknowledges that it strikes the good and wicked alike, and the wicked were just as likely to survive as the good. When the plague finally ends, he is convinced that nothing but God could have ended it - not even the worst of people could have doubted this. He seems surprised by man's unthankfulness and the return of all manner of wickedness soon after the plague. Presumably, the average people of the time really felt that they deserved to die arbitrarily of an awful disease, and after living with the horror of seeing friends and family die agonizing deaths, that they should feel thankful that God had not done the same to them. Thankfully, science has put an end to this kind of superstition. True, some people still cling to this ugly notion of God, but while we can respect Defoe as an unusually intelligent man of his time, any writer with such ideas today would be happily dismissed as a crank.
(Peter Payne, author of CAPTAIN CALIFORNIA BATTLES THE BEELZEBUBIAN BEASTS OF THE BIBLE)

This edition restores Defoe's original punctuation, with capitals for nouns and colons for stops, so that the writing has the vitality, weight and elasticity that Defoe meant when he wrote it.

To enjoy this book you need to read it as creative journalism rather than fiction otherwise it will seem dull, and Daniel Defoe is never dull. It can't satisfy as fiction because it isn't fiction. It doesn't have any of the benefits of fiction such as plot, author's whimsy, or character development. The Journal is based on the eyewitness experience of his uncle Henry Foe, which has been expanded by Defoe's own journalistic research after the event. He has simply taken the eyewitness experience of his uncle and created a masterpiece out of it for posterity.

This technique began with his first book, The Storm, except that in that book the eyewitness accounts - perhaps spruced up by Defoe himself - and his own work were separate. In the Journal of the Plague Year these are blended together so that his book has the vividness of the eyewitness view of the events as well as all the talent and research that history would wish of an account of these events.

By misclassifying the book as fiction (and by modernizing the punctuation) we have been degrading the book's value to history and to readers.

I wish the print was bigger and blacker and this applies to the Modern Library edition too, as does the above review.

The Great Plague took place when Defoe was five years old. Therefore his account written many years afterwards is as much fiction as eye-witness reporting. Yet his first- person narrator collects statistics and provides a credible account of the horrifying effect of the plague upon the citizens of London.
He relates the effects of the 'Plague' on various parts of the population and traces its develoment in time. One can sense in it how much Camus in writing his great work , " The Plague" is indebted to this work.
In the concluding days as the Plague wanes Defoe reflects upon the citizens of the city and their new reality.
This is the concluding section of the work, and gives an excellent feel of Defoe's language and narrative stance.

"It was now, as I said before, the people had cast off all apprehensions, and that too fast; indeed we were no more afraid now to pass by a man with a white cap upon his head, or with a doth wrapt round his neck, or with his leg limping, occasioned by the sores in his groin, all which were frightful to the last degree, but the week before. But now the street was full of them, and these poor recovering creatures, give them their due, appeared very sensible of their unexpected deliverance; and I should wrong them very much if I should not acknowledge that I believe many of them were really thankful. But I must own that, for the generality of the people, it might too justly be said of them as was said of the children of Israel after their being delivered from the host of Pharaoh, when they passed the Red Sea, and looked back and saw the Egyptians overwhelmed in the water: viz., that they sang His praise, but they soon forgot His works.

I can go no farther here. I should be counted censorious, and perhaps unjust, if I should enter into the unpleasing work of reflecting, whatever cause there was for it, upon the unthankfulness and return of all manner of wickedness among us, which I was so much an eye-witness of myself. I shall conclude the account of this calamitous year therefore with a coarse but sincere stanza of my own, which I placed at the end of my ordinary memorandums the same year they were written:-

A dreadful plague in London was
In the year sixty-five,
Which swept an hundred thousand souls
Away; yet I alive!"

I love this book. It was as good as "Moll Flanders" and has a very happy and satisfying ending.

I read "Robinson Crusoe" as a young boy, and never forgot it (55 years later); then, as a mature adult I read "A Journal of the Plague Year" and "Moll Flanders", both of which were execellent reads; and a few days ago I finished "Roxana", so let me share a few thoughts about the book.
First off, when you read Defoe, it is essential to realize that you are dipping into the very beginnings of English literature. Anything that is three centuries removed from the present has to be put into its historical context in order to make sense of it, and contemporary values must be held in abeyance. If you are capable of doing that, you are in for a heck of a good story, as are all of the books mentioned above.
"Roxana" concerns the rise and fall (mostly rise) of a woman left destitute, along with her five children, by her fool of a husband. Circumstances eventually lead her to prostitution as a means of survival, and as luck would have it, her "gentlemen protectors" are uniformly wealthy, and by means of careful marshalling of her earnings Roxana becomes independently wealthy. But what she lacks is social status, which leads her to her final alliance with a Dutch merchant who knows nothing of her past.
Along the way, Roxana begets and abandons about nine offspring here and there(this being the days before birth control), and one of them, Susan, figures in the downfall of Roxana. This novel pays great attention to the psychological aspects of living a life that is generally condemned by society. Defoe shapes Roxana's psychological health around his own ethical views, and, as such, makes Roxana suffer for her choices in the long run. Thus, the novel does not end happily for its central character, an interesting fact, in that this is the only novel of Defoe's that does not end happily for the protagonist.
All told, "Roxana" is a great read. Defoe certainly reflects his ethical biases, but at the same time does a good job of objectively fleshing out charaters who forcefully express points of view that differ from his own.
For me, everything worked beautifully in the novel until the last paragraph, but that happens a lot in literature.

This novel is about how the desperations brought on by poverty can lead not only to crime but to a moral vacuum within an individual. Roxana is left a penniless widow with five children at age 22. In order to survive she becomes the mistress of her landlord and eventually bears him a son. Greed replaces need, and she determines to become a "woman of Wealth." After the landlord is murdered in a robbery, she becomes the mistress of an even wealthier prince, refusing to marry him because that would mean having to share her wealth. Eventually, after guilt and repentance set in over her squandered life, she decides to marry the prince, but all does not turn out well: she moves to Holland with him where "I fell into a dreadful Course of Calamities ... and I was brought so low again." One of the most interesting characters in the book is Roxana's faithful maid Amy, who sticks by Roxana through all her tribulations, even once offering her body to the landlord when Roxana appears to be barren. But for the life of me, after reading the ending a dozen times, I can't tell for sure whether Amy actually kills Roxana's menacing daughter or merely threatens to do so. This edition retains all the original spellings and punctuations, so it's a little hard reading at first, but with a little perseverance the eye and mind adjust and the difficulty wanes. Worth the effort.

In response to the previous review:

This book was originally written in Dutch and first published in Amsterdam in 1678 - most texts refer to him as a French surgeon, as he originally came in contact with the buccaneers as a result of his 1666 journey to tortuga with the French West India Company. His name is spelled Alexander Exquemelin....

The events of the book cross reference fairly well with Spanish historical documents - most errors are in place names and dates, according to David Cordingly (british historian, and expert on all things pirate).

No one knows for sure the spelling of the man's name of his nationality, but in 1684 Alexander Esquemeling published in London a powerful, some say mendacious, personal reminiscence of Henry Morgan and other pirates. Histerical at times, this work brilliantly recreates Morgan's most memorable, indeed incredible adventures. A must read for anyone wishing to capture an authentic view of the Carribean during the period of pirates and the battles of Spanish main.

Much more interesting than I could have imagined. Written by the author of Robinson Crusoe. If I have my dates correct, Daniel Defoe was about 5 years old when the Great Plague hit London. He wrote this journal when he was 62 years old, and wrote what he recalled of the plague. It obviously left a great impression on him. (He wrote this journal 3 years after he wrote Robinson Crusoe -- again if I have all my dates correct -- he wrote Robinson Crusoe at age 59 years age.) Robinson Crusoe and Journal of the Plague Year are both on Harold Bloom's Western Canon reading list.

In this documentary novel, Defoe sketches poignantly the irrational behaviour of man under extreme circumstances, when death threatens behind every corner of the street.
People turned to fortune-tellers, astrologers or conjurers who deluded them. They became the victims of `doctors' selling `infallible preventive pills'. They `swarmed to a wicked generation of pretenders to magic and black art'.
People were terrified by the force of their imagination and saw representations and appearances in clouds. Their impudence increased by using devilish blasphemous language.
Others risked their lives by stealing and plundering without any regard to the danger of infection.
Man behaved as a mad dog.

The Government encouraged devotion, public prayers, fasting and humiliation to implore the mercy of God to avert the dreadful judgment. `Many a penitent confession was made of crimes long concealed.'
Innumerable religious sects and divisions fought for the souls of the condemned. It was `altar against altar'. The discourses of the religious ministers were full of terror, prophesying evil tidings.
Unfortunately, religion was not the solution: `the best physic against the plague was to run away from it.' People who believed in predestination (`tis the hand of God, there is no withstanding it') and stayed home, were infected too and died by thousands.
For Swift `there was no apparent extraordinary occasion for supernatural operation, it was really propagated by natural means.'

The near view of death reconciled men of good principles one to another.
But as the terror of infection abated, things all returned again to the course they were in before.
More, after the plague, `people, hardened by the danger they had been in, were more wicked and more stupid, more bold and hardened, in their vices and immoralities.'

In this impressive panorama, worth a Breughel or a Hieronymus Bosch, the only weakness is the lack of some kind of plot.

Not to be missed.

Focus on the Family Great Stories edition, introduction and afterword by Joe Wheeler.

Defoe published the followup to his best-seller Robinson Crusoe just five months after the first book it the streets, in a surprisingly modern marketing effort to cash in on the name recognition. Surprisingly modern, that is, given that both books were published in 1719, just one hundred years after Shakespeare and the King James Version of the Bible set the standard for the English language for the next 300 years.

In some ways more interesting than the original, the "farther adventures" (my son pointed out the subtle play on words in the title that I had not noticed!) allows Defoe to set up some new scenarios: women and "savages" have been introduced into his paradise, giving him the opportunity to write about salvation and missionary zeal. Of course since Defoe seemed to delight in contrarian views, he embodies the missionary zeal in the body of a French Catholic priest, in sharp contrast to his non-Conformist Protestantism. Defoe resolves the problem in strikingly modern terms pleasing to the true Biblical view.

Which makes his later section on the destruction of an idol during the march through the frozen tundra between China and Russia, while the idol's followers are forced to watch bound and gagged but with NO attempt on the part of Crusoe to witness to them, all the more surprising. Even worse, when the caravan is confronted by the people's government and asked to reveal and turn over the culprits, is Crusoe's silent sin of omission that put the whole caravan of hundreds of people in danger.

In all, the "farther adventures" are a fascinating artifact of history, a readable novel, and an interesting study in western missionary philosophy.

That Crusoe would have so matured and improved with age having been stuck on an island for most of his life? Life begins at sixty for Robinson Crusoe. Friday is dead in Robinson Crusoe though, so the blurb is wrong.

Robinhound Crusoe is a great book, and it's great for kids! It all starts with 12-year-old Joe (Wishbone's friend) who is doing his warm-ups for a basketball game that he is going to play in, but Ellen's (Joe's mom) tooth has been bothering her, so, she decides to go to the dentist. Before she goes she says if he needs anything to give her a call. But when she is gone there's a blackout, and Joe doesn't know if he can make it to the game in time. Wishbone and Joe go out to try to make it to the ball game, and this reminded Wishbone of the classic book Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe does not like to work in his dad's hat shop, so he goes out to sea and gets shipwrecked, and stuck on a island. I'm not going to tell you anymore about this book, but if you do want to know more about it buy the book!!!

It starts off with Joe practicing some basketball warm-ups for his big game that night. Joe has been trying hard to impress the eighth grade coach. Ellen's tooth has been bothering her, so, she decides to go to the dentist. Joe says bye, and his mom tells him if he needs anything to give her a call. It's about 4:30 and all of a sudden the lights go out in Joe's house. He goes in, to see if he can fix the problem. Joe wonders if he'll ever make it to the game on time. This situation reminds Wishbone of Robinson Cruesoe. Robinson Crusoe is this man, doesn't want to work in a hat shop with his father. He goes to seek what he thinks is his true calling. He secretly tells his mom and dad good-bye and that he loves them, and that maybe he would come back some day to see them. Robinson goes to sea, his so called true calling. His ship gets wrecked and he is thrown ashore on an island all by himself. he doesn't know if anyone else survived the shipwreck. So, I only have two questions left for you. Will Joe ever make it to his game on time? Will Robinson ever make it off the island, or will he be stuck there for life? Well, you will have to read this book for yourself; to find out the answers to these two questions. I really enjoyed reading this book, it was really great. I would also reccomend reading Prince and the Pooch, by Caroline Leavitt, and this book, Robinhound Cruesoe, by Caroline Leavitt.

Defoe wrote this in the late 1700s, and it was revised in the early 1800s, with comical footnotes about how those antiquated business practices had now been modernized! Defoe was involved in various mercantile ventures, and wrote from hard earned experience, providing a bona fide textbook of business strategy and negotiating practices that is still very cogent today. I'd highly recommend this book to young people entering the business world, but alas it's out of print, and thus impractical to obtain.

I have purchaed a 16 volume set written by Daniel Dafoe. the titles are "The Romances and Narratives by Daniel Dafoe" Edited by George A Aitkens. The first vol. is entitled " The Suprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe"

Please give me some information as to the rareness and the value of these antique books.