Synopsis
Like several of the main characters in Defoe's stories (Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders), Colonel Jacque never really knew his real parents; and he is always looking out for the main chance. His chief interest is commerce, and he becomes an Anglo-Saxon trader. It is the story of his successful trading which probably accounts for the continued popularity of this story throughout history. The following fairly well sums up the story of Colonel Jacque, (and was included on the title-page of earlier printings of this story which was first published in 1722)...
"The History and Remarkable Life of the truly Honourable Colonel Jacque, vulgarly called Col. Jack, who was born a Gentleman; put 'Prentice to a Pickpocket; was six and twenty years a Thief, and then kidnapped to Virginia; came back a Merchant; was five times married to four Whores; went into the Wars, behaved bravely, got Preferment, was made Colonel of a Regiment; came over, and fled with the Chevalier, is still abroad Completing a Life of Wonders, and resolves to die a General."
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From the Back Cover
Long dismissed by critics as a novel of merely historical interest, Colonel Jack is one of Daniel Defoe’s most entertaining, revealing, and complex works. It is the supposed autobiography of an English gentleman who begins life as a child of the London streets. He and his brothers are brought up as pickpockets and highwaymen, but Jack seeks to improve himself. Kidnapped and taken to America, he becomes first a slave, then an overseer on plantations in Maryland. Jack’s story is one of dramatic turns of fortune that ultimately lead to a life of law-abiding prosperity as a plantation owner.
Historical appendices relate to eighteenth-century Virginia and Maryland and to contemporary crime, punishment, and imprisonment.
About the Author
Gabriel Cervantes is Assistant Professor of English at the University of North Texas.
Geoffrey Sill is Professor of English at Rutgers University and the co-editor of the Broadview Edition of Frances Burney’s The Witlings and The Woman-Hater.
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