42 DE FOE’S SECONDARY NOVELS.

and, as Scott suggests, is probably enriched with anecdotes which De Foa
had heard from the lips of greybeards who had themselves been “ out ” in
the Great Rebellion.

Such a work might well be supposed sufficient for one twelvemonth’s toil;
but De Foe’s fertility was as inexhaustible as his industry, and the same
year which produced the ‘‘ Memoirs of a Cavalier,” also gave birth to the
“ Life, Adventures, and Pyracies of the famous Captain Singleton ;”* a book
which is perfectly wonderful in the minute knowledge it displays of the
geography of Central Africa, and the manner in which it positively anti-
cipates some of the discoveries of Baker, Speke, and Livingstone.

TI shall notice in quick succession the later novels of our author.

On the 27th of January, 1722, appeared ‘‘ The Fortunes and Misfortunes
of the Famous Moll Flanders. Written from her own Memorandums.”

On the 17th of March was produced “A Journal of the Plague Year:
Being Observations or Memorials of the most Remarkable Occurrences, as
well Publick as Private, which happened in London during the last Great
Visitation in 1665. Written by a Citizen who continued all the while in
London. Never made public before.”

The “ Journal” is full of ghastly pictures, which are almost horrible in
their photographic fidelity ; a fidelity so conspicuous and so remarkable
that it induced the eminent physician Dr. Mead to refer to De Foe’s ficti-
tious narrative as to an authority of weight. It exhibits his marvellous
realistic art in its utmost perfection; and, even at the present day, cannot
be read without interest.

Ranking “ Robinson Crusoe ”’ as its author’s greatest work of fiction, and
his ‘‘ Memoirs of a Cavalier’ as second in merit, I cannot but ascribe the
third place to the ‘ Life of Colonel Jack,”t which appeared in December
1722, and which dealt with the career of a male criminal, as ‘‘ Moll Flanders”
had dealt with that of a female. The value of what has been emphatically
called Thieves’ Literature may reasonably be doubted, and I question much
whether any work of this class has morally benefited a single reader. Yet
it must be admitted that De Foe, unlike many of our modern novelists,
always paints vice as it is—in all its filth and all its degradation—and

* The full title runs :—‘‘ The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies of the famous Captain
Singleton: Containing an Account of his being set on Shore in the Island of Madagascar,
his Settlement there, with a Description of the Place and Inhabitants: Of his Passage
from thence in a Paraguay (periagua) to the main Land of Africa, with an Account of the
Customs and Manners of the People. His great Deliverances from the barbarous Natives
and Wild Beasts : Of his Meeting with an Englishman, a Citizen of London, among the
Indians, the great Riches he acquired, and his Voyage Home to England: As also Cap-
tain Singleton’s Return to Sea, with an Account of his many Adventures and Pyracies
with the famous Captain Avery and Others. London: J. Brotherton, &c. 1720.”

t The full title runs:—‘‘ The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable
Colonel Jacque, vulgarly called Colonel Jack; who was Born a Gentleman, put ’Pren-
tice to a Pickpocket, was Six and Twenty Years a Thief, and then Kidnapp’d to Vir-
ginia. Came back a Merchant; went into the Wars, behav’d bravely, got Preferment;

was made a Colonel of a Regiment; came over, and fled with, the Chevalier; is still
abroad compleating a Life of Wonders, and resolves to dye a General. London. 1722.”