Daniel Defoe

Immensely readable history by the author of Robinson Crusoe incorporates the author's celebrated flair for journalistic detail, and represents the major source of information about piracy in the early 18th century. Defoe recounts the daring and bloody deeds of such outlaws as Edward Teach (alias Blackbeard), Captain Kidd, Mary Read, Anne Bonny, many others.

Defoe's eighteenth-century novel of a woman's eventual escape from the life of immorality and wickedness imposed on her by society since her birth.

Classic 1722 account of the epidemic that ravaged England nearly 60 years earlier. Defoe used his considerable talents as a journalist and novelist to reconstruct — historically and fictionally — the Great Plague of London in 1664-65. Written as an eyewitness report, the novel abounds in memorable and realistic details.

Defoe's account of the bubonic plague that swept London in 1665 remains as vivid as it is harrowing. Based on Defoe's own childhood memories and prodigious research, A Journal of the Plague Year walks the line between fiction, history, and reportage. In meticulous and unsentimental detail it renders the daily life of a city under siege; the often gruesome medical precautions and practices of the time; the mass panics of a frightened citizenry; and the solitary travails of Defoe's narrator, a man who decides to remain in the city through it all, chronicling the course of events with an unwavering eye. Defoe's Journal remains perhaps the greatest account of a natural disaster ever written. This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the original edition published in 1722.

Das Leben und die seltsamen Abenteuer des Robinson Crusoe, eines Seemannes aus York, welcher siebenundzwanzig Jahre ganz allein auf einer unbewohnten Insel vor der amerikanischen Küste nahe des großen Orinoco lebte, wohin er nach dem Schiffbruch, bei dem die ganze Besatzung bis auf ihn selbst ums Leben kam, verschlagen wurde. Nebst dem Bericht wie er durch wunderbare Weise durch Piraten errettet wurde. Geschrieben von ihm selbst. (Titel der Originalausgabe, erschienen 1719.)

Who has not dreamed of life on an exotic isle, far away from civilization? Here is the novel which has inspired countless imitations by lesser writers, none of which equal the power and originality of Defoe's famous book. Robinson Crusoe, set ashore on an island after a terrible storm at sea, is forced to make do with only a knife, some tobacco, and a pipe. He learns how to build a canoe, make bread, and endure endless solitude. That is, until, twenty-four years later, when he confronts another human being. First published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has been praised by such writers as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Samuel Johnson as one of the greatest novels in the English language. Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) trained for the ministry, became a political journalist, and finally, to many, became "the father of the English novel." He is also the author of Moll Flanders.

Daniel Defoe's famous eighteenth-century novel about a girl born in Newgate Gaol: "Twelve Year a Whore, Five Times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia" who"at last grew Riche, liv'd in Honest and died a Penitent" is brought to the stage in this rumbustious musical written by Claire Luckham.4 women, 5 men

This classic story of a shipwrecked mariner on a deserted island is perhaps the greatest adventure in all of English literature. Fleeing from pirates, Robinson Crusoe is swept ashore in a storm possessing only a knife, a box of tobacco, a pipe-and the will to survive. His is the saga of a man alone: a man who overcomes self-pity and despair to reconstruct his life; who painstakingly teaches himself how to fashion a pot, bake bread, build a canoe; and who, after twenty-four agonizing years of solitude, discovers a human footprint in the sand... Consistently popular since its first publication in 1719, Daniel Defoe's story of human endurance in an exotic, faraway land exerts a timeless appeal. The first important English novel, Robinson Crusoe has taken its rightful place among the great myths of Western civilization.

Defoe's most celebrated story of Crusoe's shipwreck, his resourcefulness and ingenuity in his soliatry life on a desert island and his rescue of Man Friday has been abridged and retold many times since its publication (in two volumes) in 1719.

With an Introduction and Notes by R. T. Jones, Honorary Fellow of the University of York. The novel follows the life of its eponymous heroine, Moll Flanders, through its many vicissitudes, which include her early seduction, careers in crime and prostitution, conviction for theft and transportation to the plantations of Virginia, and her ultimate redemption and prosperity in the New World. Moll Flanders was one of the first social novels to be published in English and draws heavily on Defoe’s experience of the topography and social conditions prevailing in the London of the late 17th century.

Robinson Crusoe runs away to sea, is wrecked, and leads a solitary existence on an uninhabited island near the Orinoco river for twenty-four years. He finds consolation in the Bible and after a while meets another human, a young native whom he saves from death and calls Man Friday, because he met him on a Friday. Defoe based his story on the adventures of Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk. Published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe is one of the first novels in the English language and is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre. It is one of the most widely read books in history, spawning numerous sequels and adaptations for stage, film, and television.

The authoritative text has been fully annotated and makes available a perennially popular novel, one that has often been mistaken for an actual eyewitness account of the last great plague in England. "Backgrounds" encourages comparison of 1665 documents with those of the early 1720s, when England feared a new outbreak of the plague. Included are official government orders and newspaper accounts as well as writings by Defoe, John Graunt, the College of Physicians, and others. "Contexts" includes eight comparative pieces united by the theme of a community in crisis. From Thucydides to Boccaccio to modern accounts by Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, and Susan Sontag, this collection represents some of the most celebrated observers and critics in western civilization who have seen what plagues reveal about human nature. "Criticism" reprints seven of the best essays on the novel, including interpretations by Sir Walter Scott, Maximillian E. Novak, John J. Richetti, and John Bender, among others. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

With an Introduction and Notes by Doreen Roberts, Rutherford College, University of Kent at Canterbury. From its first publication in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has been printed in over 700 editions. It has inspired almost every conceivable kind of imitation and variation, and been the subject of plays, opera, cartoons, and computer games. The character of Crusoe has entered the consciousness of each succeeding generation as readers add their own interpretation to the adventures so thrillingly 'recorded' by Defoe. Praised by eminent figures such as Coleridge, Rousseau and Wordsworth, this perennially popular book was cited by Karl Marx in Das Kapital to illustrate economic theory. However it is readers of all ages over the last 280 years who have given Robinson Crusoe its abiding position as a classic tale of adventure.

This is the spirited story of a survivor whose racy anecdotes and shady dealings only underline her essential warmth and goodness. But there is nothing sentimental about Moll, who presents herself warts and all. Though her adventures take her abroad, she remains the vivid creation of London. Moll Flanders, pickpocket and prostitute-a mercantile genius trading in the oldest human commodity-has been for the past three centuries an enduring representative of reckless vitality combined with unshakable inner virtue. Daniel Defoe manages his story with such skill that our affection for his heroine increases with each astonishing sin she commits. Moll's adventures-possibly taken by Defoe from the story of some real criminal he met in Newgate, who "five times a wife, twelve year a thief, eight year a transported felon, at last grew rich, lived honest and died a penitent"-is told with the directness of narrative and reality of incident in which Defoe, often called the father of the novel, has never been equaled. (Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

Born in Newgate prison and abandoned six months later, Moll's drive to find and hold on to a secure place in society propels her through incest, adultery, bigamy, prostitution and a resourceful career as a thief ('the greatest Artist of my time') before she is apprehended and returned to Newgate. If Moll Flanders is on one level a Puritan's tale of sin and repentance, through self-made, self-reliant Moll its rich subtext conveys all the paradoxes and amoralities of the struggle for property and power in Defoe's newly individualistic society.

After surviving a terrible shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe discovers he is the only human on an island far from any shipping routes or rescue. At first he is devastated, but slowly, with patience and imagination, he transforms his dismal island into a tropical paradise. For twenty-four years he lives with no human companionship - until one fateful day, when he discovers he is not alone...

Daniel Defoe's bawdy tale of a woman's struggle for independence and redemption, Moll Flanders is edited with an introduction and notes by David Blewett in Penguin Classics. Born in Newgate prison and abandoned six months later, Moll Flanders' drive to find and hold on to a secure place in society propels her through incest, adultery, bigamy, prostitution and a resourceful career as a thief ('the greatest Artist of my time') before her crimes catche up with her, and she is transported to the colony of Virginia in the New World. If Moll Flanders is on one level a Puritan's tale of sin and repentance, through self-made, self-reliant Moll, Daniel Defoe's rich subtext conveys all the paradoxes and amoralities of the struggle for property and power in the newly individualistic society of Eighteenth-century England. Based on the first edition of 1722, this volume includes a chronology, suggestions for further reading, notes on currency and maps of London and Virginia in the late seventeenth century. Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) had a variety of careers including merchant, soldier, spy, and political pamphleteer. Over the course of his life Daniel Defoe wrote over two hundred and fifty books on economics, history, biography and crime, but is best remembered for the fiction he produced in late life, which includes Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1722) and Roxana (1724). Defoe had a great influence on the development of the English novel and many consider him to be the first true novelist. If you enjoyed Moll Flanders, you might like Samuel Richardson's Pamela, also available in Penguin Classics.

This exciting, adventure packed pantomime traces Robinson Crusoe's voyage to Tobago where he hopes to locate the hidden treasure shown on the map given to him by Old Jim. Blackpatch, the Pirate, stows away on board, and later enlists the help of Jack boot and his band of bloodthirsty Pirates in an attempt to steal the treasure. Unfortunately Crusoe reckoned without Demon Oylslick, whose threat to pollute the High Seas is later repelled by Fairy Detergent. Crusoe encounters Man Friday and some hungry Cannibals, led by Queen Wotta Woppa, on the Island after his amazing shipwreck. Large flexible cast