The Life, Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton

By Daniel Defoe

Book Overview

The Life, Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton is a novel by Daniel Defoe, originally published in 1720. It has been re-published multiple times since, some of which times were in 1840, 1927, 1972 and 2008. Captain Singleton is believed to have been partly inspired by the exploits of the English pirate Henry Every, who operated in the late 17th century. The narrative describes the life of the Englishman, Singleton, stolen from a well-to-do family as a child and raised by Gypsies, eventually making his way to sea. The former half of the book concerns Singleton's crossing of Africa, the latter half concerning his life as a pirate in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. Defoe's description of piracy focuses for the most part on matters of economics and logistics, and Singleton's pirate behaves more like a merchant adventurer, perhaps Defoe's comment on the mercantilism of his day.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1976348811
• ISBN13: 9781976348815
• Release Date: September 2017
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Real Pyrates

DeFoe brings the lives of the classic era of pyrates to life. Men like Low, really evil, Teach, not a nice guy, Misson, a utopian, Bartholomew Roberts, cutthroat, come to life. He must have attended the trials in England of some of the pyrates and reports their stories in a lively fashion. The actions of the pyrates were well known to the merchants in London and the cause of great concern. These men killed a lot of people and the English navy hanged most of them, except for the scores killed in battle(like Black Bart and Blackbeard), and the exceptional man who retired. These pyrates disrupted commerce around the world and left many innocent merchantmen dead or bankrupt. This is an interesting read for people who want the true story.