Daniel Defoe

Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies of contemporary...

"The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe is a timeless tale that has captivated readers for centuries. First published in 1719, this iconic novel tells the extraordinary story of Robinson Crusoe, a young and adventurous Englishman whose life takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself shipwrecked on a remote island. As the sole survivor of the shipwreck, Crusoe must learn to adapt and survive in his newfound solitude. With resourcefulness...

'The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders' is one of Daniel Defoe's most celebrated novels. It tells the story of Moll Flanders, a charming con woman, from an autobiographical perspective. The reader follows Moll in her travels between London and Virginia as she attempts to marry or steal her way out of destitution. This novel is both hilarious and tragic as Defoe's acclaimed writing portrays the hardship of 17th-century life in a...

This classic eighteenth-century work on the Golden Age of Piracy includes stories of Black Bart, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and many others. How did we come to picture pirates donning peg legs, wearing eye patches, and burying treasure? This book, dating back to 1724, features biographies of the notorious buccaneers of the Golden Age of Piracy, and the history, stories, and legends that surround them. Published under the name Capt. Charles Johnson,...

What a brilliant rant against female servants, footmen and shoe shiners. The maids come from the countryside and they immediately raise their wages, start wearing fancy silk dresses instead of wool. These even start affairs with the Master's apprentice, his son, or even the masters. This of course wrecks his marriage, family and even his estate at which point she dumps a bastard on him and leaves. All I can say is how horrible those poor rich men...

Daniel Defoe wrote Moll Flanders in 1722, after the highly successful Robinson Crusoe. Defoe's political work was ceasing at the time, though his experience with the Whigs shines through in the novel. The full title of the novel gives a brief overview of its contents:

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Etc. Who Was Born In Newgate, and During a Life of Continu'd Variety For Threescore Years, Besides Her

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On the evening of 26th November 1703, a cyclone from the north Atlantic hammered into southern Britain at over seventy miles an hour, claiming the lives of over 8,000 people. Eyewitnesses reported seeing cows left stranded in the branches of trees and windmills ablaze from the friction of their whirling sails. For Defoe, bankrupt and just released from prison for seditious writings, the storm struck during one of his bleakest moments. But it also...

A fascinating slice of 18th century British life and still surprisingly relevant.

Set sail for adventure! "As it is usual for great persons, whose lives have been remarkable, and whose actions deserve recording to posterity, to insist much upon their originals, give full accounts of their families, and the histories of their ancestors, so, that I may be methodical, I shall do the same, though I can look but a very little way into my pedigree, as you will see presently." The style of 'Captain Singleton,' like that of 'Robinson Crusoe,'...

(Excerpt): "A faithful and very surprising Account how Dickory Cronke, a Tinner's son, in the County of Cornwall, was born Dumb, and continued so for Fifty-eight years; and how, some days before he died, he came to his Speech; with Memoirs of his Life, and the Manner of his Death."