Daniel Defoe

The sole survivor of a shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe endures twenty-seven years of solitude and deprivation on a remote Caribbean island, his only companion an escaped prisoner who he names "Friday." Together, Crusoe and Friday encounter cannibals, captives and mutineers, before being rescued by pirates and returning home. Written by Daniel Defoe in 1719, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is thought to be inspired by the true story of Scottish...

During one of his several adventurous voyages in the 1600's an Englishman becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck and lives for nearly thirty years on a deserted island.

Daniel Defoe's great talent as a writer was to speak in the voices of others. Such was the authenticity of this memoir of a 17th-century soldier of fortune that for over half a century it was considered to be genuine. The struggle of the narrator to turn his observations into facts and to make certain history out of his uncertain experiences combines with vivid descriptions of the battles of the Civil War to give the narrative its dramatic qualities....

En 1651, Robinson Crusoé quitte York, en Angleterre, pour naviguer, contre la volonté de ses parents qui souhaitaient qu'il devienne avocat. Son navire est abordé par des pirates de Salé : Crusoé devient l'esclave d'un Maure. Mais il parvient à s'échapper sur un bateau portugais qui l'emmène au Brésil, o il devient le propriétaire d'une plantation. En 1659, alors qu'il a vingt-huit ans, il rejoint une expédition recherchant des esclaves...

Beginning with an account of her first marriage to a man she describes as a "fool," Roxana tells the tale of her unusual life in a poignant first-person narrative. As her respect for her husband's intelligence and character decline, Roxana and her husband grow apart, and he eventually abandons her to fend for herself. As a result, Roxana forsakes her virtue and turns to a life of prostitution. At first she does this only to ensure her survival, but...

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,'...

This novel is a fictionalized account of one man's experiences of the year 1665, in which the Great Plague struck the city of London. Although it purports to have been written only a few years after the event, it actually was written in the years just prior to the book's first publication in March 1722. Defoe was only five years old in 1665, and the book itself was published under the initials 'H. F.' The novel probably was based on the journals of...

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

A Journal of the Plague Year, written by a citizen who continued all the while in London by Daniel Defoe A Journal of the Plague Year is a book by Daniel Defoe, first published in March 1722. It is an account of one man's experiences of the year 1665, in which the bubonic plague struck the city of London in what became known as the Great Plague of London, the last epidemic of plague in that city.

Moll, which she emphasizes, is not her birth name, though she never does reveal what it was, is, raised until she is teenager in America by a foster mother. She then gets a job as a household servant where she is, loved by both, of the families’ sons. The oldest convinces her to "act as if, they were, married" in bed, but then is unwilling to marry her, and pawns her off on his younger brother. She is then, widowed, and leaves her children behind,...