The Storm - Hardcover

Defoe, Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713997265 ISBN 13: 9780713997262

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2003

Synopsis

On the evening of 26th November 1703, a cyclone from the north Atlantic hammered into southern Britain at over seventy miles an hour, claiming the lives of over 8,000 people. Eyewitnesses reported seeing cows left stranded in the branches of trees and windmills ablaze from the friction of their whirling sails. For Defoe, bankrupt and just released from prison for seditious writings, the storm struck during one of his bleakest moments.
But it also furnished him with the material for his first book, and in his powerful depiction of private suffering and individual survival played out against a backdrop of public calamity we can trace the outlines of his later masterpieces such as A Journal of the Plague Year and Robinson Crusoe.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Hamblyn is the author of the Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies, which won the LA Times Book Prize and was short-listed for the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize in 2002. He lives and works in London.

From the Inside Flap

'Horror and Confusion seiz'd upon all, whether on Shore or at Sea: No Pen can describe it, no Tongue can express it, no Thought conceive it'

On the evening of 26 November 1703, a cyclone from the north Atlantic hammered into Britain at over seventy miles an hour. Eyewitnesses reported seeing cows left stranded in the branches of trees and windmills ablaze from the friction of their whirling sails - and some 8,000 people lost their lives. For Defoe, just released from prison for his 'seditious' writings, bankrupt and desperate, the storm struck during one of his bleakest moments. But it also furnished him with the material for this, his first book. In his powerful depiction of private suffering and survival played out against a backdrop of natural devastation and public calamity, we can trace the outlines of his later masterpieces A Journal of the Plague Year and Robinson Crusoe.

The Storm has been out of print for nearly a century, and this major new edition marks the 300th anniversary of what is still the worst storm in British history. This edition also includes two other pieces inspired by the events of that momentous night and written by Defoe during the same period: 'The Layman's Sermon Upon the Late Storm', and the poem 'The Storm: An Essay'.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0713997265
• ISBN 13: 9780713997262
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: Hamblyn Richard