Book Description
On the evening of November 26, 1703, a hurricane from the north Atlantic hammered into Britain: it remains the worst storm the nation has ever experienced. Eyewitnesses saw cows thrown into trees and windmills ablaze from the friction of their whirling sails—and some 8,000 people lost their lives. For Defoe, bankrupt and just released from prison for his “seditious” writings, the storm struck during one of his bleakest moments. But it also furnished him with material for his first book, and in this powerful depiction of suffering and survival played out against a backdrop of natural devastation we can trace the outlines of Defoe’s later masterpieces, A Journal of the Plague Year and Robinson Crusoe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An hurricane in Britain ..strange but real
It was the evening of 26 November 1703 when a still powerful hurricane that crossed all the atlantic was about to hit Britain. Life was as usual althought climate had been very peculiar days before, with strong winds from the south. It was the time when the cathedral of St Paul was being reconstructed and it was the time of the very well known fiction writer, Daniel Defoe. In this, one of his first works, he provide a serie of accounts of the event from several sources, several stories of how this dreadful storm hit people's towns, houses and ships. 'Tis interesting to note that chimneys were the major killers in houses and that lots of trees were also lost, especially elms. People didn't blame climate change, too much C02 in the air or anything else, but God's fury.

What attracted me to this book was the very unique case, when an "extratropical hurricane" (not tropical), likely originated in the atlantic east of florida, diverted its path and managed to cross the whole Atlantic to reach Britain with such strong force, knowing that those waters in the north atlantic are very cold. A strange phenomena indeed, and an event printed in history by a great writer of the time, Daniel Defoe. Part of his life is depicted in the introduction chapter of the book and to tell you the truth, I'd really like to read his biography.

obscured by fiction
Until now Defoe's The Storm hasn't been in print as a single volume since the mid 19th century.The reason being that since the mid 19th century the public has preferred to see Defoe as a fictionist like Dickens, which has degraded his Journal of the Plague Year and consigned The Storm to oblivion.These works form a pair, both being about national disasters of historic significance.The difference in style is that The Storm consists of Defoe's own observations and research, and eyewitness accounts collected from around the nation, while A Journal of the Plague Year has the eyewitness account and Defoe's research blended together into one common narrative.No other journalist has ever done this (perhaps this is why the audacity of Jack Shephard appealed to him).But if you read the Plague Year as fiction it would be like trying to read The Storm as fiction.

Weather experts have always commented favourably on The Storm and it is legendary.Like the Plague Year, this book is great to read through and browse in afterwards as well - it is not a book to throw away.The publisher has retained the dynamics of Defoe's punctuation, but I wish that the print was bigger and blacker and more comnfortable to read. ... Read more

Book Description
Daniel Defoe, best known as the author of Robinson Crusoe, lived during a period of dramatic historical, political, and social change in Britain, and was by any standard a superb observer of his times. Through his pamphlets, newspapers, books of travel, and works of fiction he commented on anything and everything, from birth control to the price of coal, from flying machines to academies for women, from security for the aged to the dangers of the plague. In his fiction he created a type of vivid realism that powerfully influenced the development of the novel. The publication of works such as Robinson Crusoe are major events because they shape the ways in which we see our world, so that ever afterwards thoughts of desolation and desert islands immediately evoke Defoe's masterpiece. We should not be surprised: Defoe always wrote to make things happen. During his career as an author, he was a provocative pamphleteer, journalist, and poet; but when he was not writing, he was, at times, a spy and a 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 four times or more, pilloried and reviled by his enemies, through it all he never lost confidence in his ability as a writer and thinker.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. From his 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, Defoe was pre-eminently a creator of fictions. This life gives us, for the first time, a full understanding of the thought and personal experience that went into such great works as Crusoe, Moll Flanders, and Roxana. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Biography or Bibliography?
Before reading this book, I knew Daniel Defore only through his exciting fiction: Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, etc.

It turns out that Defoe also has an exciting life: struggling merchant in and out of bankruptcy, political pamphleteer, pilloried for slander, government spy, and so on.

Sadly, though you can pick the interesting elements of Defoe's life out of this work, it takes some effort.Novak's book is really a lengthy analysis of Defoe through his writings and spends much more time discussing the polemical meaning of various poems than, say, Defoe's relationship with his wife, or his travel, or his education.

In fact, all aspects of Defoe's life are really only described in this biography insofar as they can be accessed through Defoe's writings.This makes the book -- whose scholarship I do not fault -- tedious and not very easy to read as biography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Hero or Villain
Paula Backscheider is widely regarded as Defoe's leading biographer on the strenghth of this book written eighteen years ago. It is both scholarly and contradictiory. Was Defoe the victim of religious persecution triumphing over adversity ot was he a man of poor character constantly on the run from the law? What we know now was that Defoe was illegitimate and brought up harshly on the margin of things.He was constantly on the run from the law. A homosexual, at a time when this was against the law, he sought the favours and protection of powerful men. He had eight children by three simultaneous wives and ended his life in poverty a refuge from the law. There is little of this in Backscheider's book. But what is there is scholarly and entertaining. ... Read more

Book Description
A comprehensive interpretation of one of Great Britain's most wide-ranging and prolific authors, this book examines Daniel Defoe's capacity to perceive fundamental historical change and long-term social process in light of his observations on liberty, property, trade, warfare, religion, and manners. ... Read more

Book Description
The classic works of literature contained in each of these volumes represent each author's best and most famous writings. A wonderful introduction to world literature, this finely crafted and affordable series offers the works of these world-renowned authors to a wider audience. Includes Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders.

Las obras clásicas de literatura en cada volumen son una representación de los mejores y más famosos escritos de los autores. Una introducción maravillosa a la literatura universal, esta serie hermosamente diseñada pone las obras de los autores mundialmente conocidos al alcance de todos. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
The Critical Heritage gathers together a large of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work enabling student and researcher to read the material themselves. ... Read more

Book Description
Series Editors: James Nagel, University of Georgia; Zack Bowen, University of Miami and Robert Lecker, McGill University

The full range of literary traditions comes to life in the Twayne Critical Essays Series. Volume editors have carefully selected critical essays that represent the full spectrum of controversies, trends and methodologies relating to each author's work. Essays include writings from the author's native country and abroad, with interpretations from the time they were writing, through the present day. Each volume includes:

• An introduction providing the reader with a lucid overview of criticism from itsbeginnings-illuminating controversies, evaluating approaches, and sorting out the schools of thought
• The most influential reviews and the best reprinted scholarly essays
• A section devoted exclusively to reviews and reactions by the subject's contemporaries
• Original essays, new translations, and revisions commissioned especially for the series
• Previously unpublished materials such as interviews, lost letters andmanuscript fragments
• A bibliography of the subject's writings and interviews
• A name and subject index

Customer Reviews (4)

readable biography
The foreward is interesting and helps to put this biography in perspective. Richard West candidly indicates that he was much influenced by Paula R. Backscheider's Daniel Defore: His Life which is now out of print. I got the impression that this biography may be based on that book plus West's enjoyment reading Defoe. A biography can often provide an interesting window into a particulartime and place. It's interesting reading about the Glorious Revolution and the reign of Queen Anne, but disconcerting to have so many quotes from classic history by Macaulay and Trevelyan. It feels like one is getting a narrow and somewhat dated version of the period. One does not get the full texture that only a historian who has read widely and deeply in particular period of history can provide. But we get a lot of Defoe's own words and West himself is a good story teller so if one is looking for an entertaining biography why quibble whether the setting is Macaulay's storybook England rather than the real thing (whatever that may be).

A superb biography of a unique and fascinating man.
In Daniel Defoe: The Life And Strange, Surprising Adventures, biographer Richard West tells the story of Daniel Defoe, a maverick, a Puritan,and a dissenter without a constituency. Defoe was also a bankrupt who rubbedelbows with a king, a hack who never failed to pursue the truth. And thewriter who produced such literary classics as Moll Flanders, Roxana, AJournal of the Plague Year, and Robinson Crusoe. Defoe's life was every bitas dramatic and unexpected as the protagonists of his famous novels. Westhas wonderfully and scrupulously recreated the remarkable personality andthe colorful times that shaped and were shaped by this noted, fascinating,unique and historic literary figure.

Solid and Readable
West provides a very readable, unfussy biography, presenting a vivid and detailed portrait of Defoe's life and times.He falls short with his "analysis" of the novels, which amounts to little more than plotsummary, but his insight into Defoe's character--as a man of high moralprinciple who occasionally succumbed to expediency--is priceless.

A delightful insight to the world of the enigmatic Defoe
With the tools of a storyteller, Richard West takes his readers on a journey to the world of the enigmatic Daniel Defoe and the political machinations of Britain at the dawn of the 18th century.To anyreader,even to one who has a limited understanding of British history, Westpaves a path among the intrigue of the Whigs and Tories, and has his readerfollow the footsteps of Defoe into the Tower of London, the roads of GreatBritain, and the gardens of rulers. With the ability to explain Defoe'smysterious background, West guides the reader toward an understanding ofaman who has remained elusive for centuries.West offers the reader anexplanation for the many masks that Defoe wore as writer, invester, spy andtraveler. With the skill of a story-teller, West opens a world ofhistoric fact even to the most reluctant non-fiction reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Unhurriedly Pragmatic Adventure Story
In the literary world it is perhaps blasphemy to say a bad word against Daniel Defoe's most acclaimed novel. So here goes. The fact that the book was originally titled The Life And Strange Surprising Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe illustrates the major flaw in Defoe's literary form. Put simply, this would be a far more interesting and gripping story were it not so superfluously lengthy. The author makes a habit of repeating himself, especially when it comes to the act of dispatching kittens, which seems to be more of an obsession here than octogenarian ladies are to MatronsApron. It is difficult, you may think, to keep the subject matter fresh when describing the daily tribulations of a fellow stranded on an island for thirty years, without occasionally repeating yourself. True, but perhaps a straightforward solution to this diminutive quandary would be to simply truncate the duration of the story. There are some wonderfully intriguing and suspenseful moments, and some juicy action to boot, but sadly these are gratuitously diluted by lengthy descriptions of the unremarkable everyday goings on in Crusoe's life, and rather than serving to build up the suspense, they merely obstruct the reader's relationship with the more exciting parts of the story.
However, those with more patience than my ignorant self will find in Robinson Crusoe a delightful tale, which as well as being a fictional documentary of the most unusual thirty years of Mr. Crusoe's life, also has time to ponder upon philosophical and theological ideas, in a style that makes the reader feel as if they are involved in the conflicts between the functionalist and cynical thoughts going on in Crusoe's mind. It may not be a gripping white-knuckle adventure, being rather more leisurely and acquiescent, but it is still rather easy to see why Robinson Crusoe is regarded by some as one of the greatest novels of all time. ... Read more

Book Description
The Life of Daniel Defoe examines the entire range of Defoe’s writing in the context of what is known about his life and opinions.