Moll Flanders is born in Newgate prison and abandoned six months later. Her drive to find a secure place in society propels her through incest, adultery, bigamy, prostitution, and a resourceful career as a thief, before she is returned to Newgate.

He was a British merchant, manufacturer, insurer, and spy, but Daniel Defoe eventually found his true calling as a writer-and his masterful fiction has endeared him to readers all over the world. A prolific author who published over 500 novels, travel guides, pamphlets, and journals, he was best known for his 1719 adventure novel Robinson Crusoe. Soon after the enormous success of Robinson Crusoe, Defoe wrote this compelling account of high-seas drama...

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....

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...

Robinson Crusoe, la obra del autor Daniel Defoe. Cuando en Inglaterra se conoció la historia real de Alexander Selkirk, un marinero que fue abandonado en una isla desierta cerca de las costas de Chile y que vivió varios años en la soledad hasta ser rescatado, inspiró a Daniel Defoe a hacer otra de sus novelas basadas en hechos reales, aunque presentándolas como si fueran una descripción periodística de los sucesos. En el caso de Robinson Crusoe,...

The book tells the story of Bob Singleton, who had been kidnapped as a boy from a good home and grew up with no real home. He came aboard a ship and eventually ended up being cast on an island with other crewmen. They managed to get to Africa and about the first half of the novel deals with the company's travel through Africa until they found a port from which they could get back to Europe. After their return there Singleton became member of another...

Dieser 1719 erschienene Roman unterscheidet sich deutlich von den Abenteuerromanen, die Daniel Defoe berühmt gemacht haben. Er handelt von der politischen Großwetterlage im gesamten Europa, wobei die zentrale Bedeutung die Lage im Deutschen Reich einnimmt. Es geht sowohl um den Krieg, als auch um die Herzoge, Könige und Edelmänner Europas. Weiter von den französischen und italienischen Angelegenheiten über die Interessen des schwedischen Königs...

If ever the story of any private man's adventures in the world were worth making public, and were acceptable when published, the Editor of this account thinks this will be so. The wonders of this man's life exceed all that (he thinks) is to be found extant; the life of one man being scarce capable of a greater variety. The story is told with modesty, with seriousness, and with a religious application of events to the uses to which wise men always...

Daniel Defoe's last novel "Roxana" is perhaps his darkest. Using his "fallen woman" archetype established in his seminal work "Moll Flanders," Defoe tracks the mercurial life of an unnamed female protagonist who adopts the pseudonym Roxana. The story of her rise and fall is a captivating account of the destructive powers of greed and seduction. Roxana begins as a deserted wife with five children. She chooses a life of prostitution for sustenance,...

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,'...