The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins

Robert Patlock

Description

The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins (1751) is an adventure novel by Robert Paltock. No doubt inspired by Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), Paltock’s novel is a brilliant work of fiction in its own right, earning praise from such figures as Walter Scott and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Republished in an influential 1884 edition with an introduction by editor and academic Arthur Henry Bullen, The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins remains a uniquely entertaining novel of shipwreck, romance, and discovery. “It was about the middle of June, when the days are there at the shortest, on a very starry and moonlight night, that we observed at some distance a very black cloud, but seemingly of no extraordinary size or height, moving very fast towards us, and seeming to follow the ship, which then made great way.” While sailing around Cape Horn, the crew of the Hector spots a mysterious object flying toward them in the sky. Alarmed, the men open fire, causing the object to crash into the sea. Soon, cries for help alert them to an old man afloat on the waves, grasping the remnants of his flying machine for dear life. Safely on board, the man introduces himself as Peter Wilkins. Decades prior, he left his home and family in Cornwall to embark on a voyage to Africa. There, he was stolen into slavery by Portuguese settlers, but managed to escape with the help of the native Glanlepze and his wife. Later, Wilkins fell in with a group of English prisoners, who managed to steal a Portuguese vessel before being shipwrecked and lost at sea. The sole survivor, Wilkins washed ashore on a desert island, where he would fight every second to survive. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Robert Paltock’s The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Sujets

• Classiques
• Tous les classiques
• South Pole
• British literature
• 18th century
• Pôle Sud
• Fiction
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Mint Editions
• Date de parution: 12 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781513217420
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins
Robert Paltock
 
The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins was first published in 1751.
This edition published by Mint Editions 2021.
ISBN 9781513218427 | E-ISBN 9781513217420
Published by Mint Editions®
minteditionbooks.com
Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Design & Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger
Project Manager: Micaela Clark
Typesetting: Westchester Publishing Services
 
C ONTENTS P REFACE V OLUME I The Introduction     I.    Giving an account of the author’s birth and family—The fondness of his mother—His being put to an academy at sixteen by the advice of his friend—His thoughts of his own illiterature    II.    How he spent his time at the academy—An intrigue with a servant-maid there—She declares herself with child by him—Her expostulations to him—He is put to it for money—Refused it from home by his friend, who had married his mother—Is drawn in to marry the maid—She lies-in at her aunts—Returns to her service—He has another child by her   III.    Minds his studies—Informs his master of his mother’s marriage, and usage of him—Hears of her death—Makes his master his guardian—Goes with him to take possession of his estate—Is informed all is given to his father-in-law—Moral reflections on his condition, and on his father’s crimes    IV.    Departs secretly from his master—Travels to Bristol—Religious thoughts by the way—Enters on shipboard, and is made captain’s steward     V.    His first entertainment on board—Sets sail—His sickness—Engagement with a French privateer—Is taken and laid in irons—Twenty-one prisoners turned adrift in a small boat with only two days’ provision  VI.    The boat, two hundred leagues from land, makes no way, but drives more to sea by the wind—The people live nine days at quarter allowance—Four die with hunger the twelfth day—Five more the fourteenth day—On the fifteenth they eat one just dead—Want of water excessive—Spy a sail—Are taken up—Work their passage to the African shore—Are sent on a secret expedition—Are waylaid, taken slaves, and sent up the country VII.    The author escapes with Glanlepze a native—Their hardships in travel—Plunder of a cottage—His fears—Adventure with a crocodile—Passage of a river—Adventure with a lioness and whelps—Arrive at Glanlepzis house—The trial of Glanlepze’s wife’s constancy—The tender meeting of her and her husband—The author’s reflections thereupon VIII.    How the author passed his time with Glanlepze—His acquaintance with some English prisoners—They project an escape—He joins them—They seize a Portuguese ship and get off—Make a long run from land—Want water—They anchor at a desert island—The boat goes on shore for water—They lose their anchor in a storm—The author and one Adams drove to sea—A miraculous passage to a rock—Adams drowned there—The author’s miserable condition  IX.    Wilkins thinks of destroying himself—His soliloquy—Strange accident in the hold—His surprise—Cannot climb the rock—His method to sweeten his water—Lives many months on board—Ventures to sea in his boat several times, and takes many fish—Almost overcome by an eel   X.    Lays in great store of provisions—Resolves to traverse the rock—Sails for three weeks, still seeing it only—Is sucked under the rock, and hurried down a cataract—Continues there five weeks—His description of the cavern—His thoughts and difficulties—His arrival at a great lake—And his landing in the beautiful country of Graundevolet   XI.    His joy on his arrival at land—A description of the place—No inhabitants—Wants fresh water—Resides in a grotto—Finds water—Views the country—Carries his things to the grotto XII.    An account of the grotto—A room added to it—A view of that building—The author makes a little cart—Also a wet dock for his boat—Goes in quest of provision—A description of divers fruits and plants—He brings home a cart-load of different sorts—Makes experiments on them—Loads his cart with others—A great disappointment—Makes good bread—Never sees the sun—The nature of the light XIII.    The author lays in a store against the dark weather—Hears voices—His thoughts thereon—Persuades himself it was a dream—Hears them again—Determines to see if anyone lodged in the rock—Is satisfied there is nobody—Observations on what he saw—Finds a strong weed like whipcord—Makes a drag-net—Lengthens it—Catches a monster—Its description—Makes oil of it XIV.    The author passes the summer pleasantly—Hears the voices in the winter—Ventures out—Sees a strange sight on the lake—His uneasiness at it—His dream—Soliloquy—Hears the voices again, and perceives a great shock on his building—Takes up a beautiful woman—He thinks her dead, but recovers her—A description of her—She stays with him  XV.    Wilkins is afraid of losing his new mistress—They live together all winter—A remark on that—They begin to know each others language—A long discourse between them at cross purposes—She flies—They engage to be man and wife XVI.    The author’s disappointment at first going to bed with his new wife—Some strange circumstances relating thereto—She resolves several questions he asks her, and clears up his fears as to the voices—A description of swangeans XVII.   Youwarkee cannot bear a strong light—Wilkins makes her spectacles, which help her—A description of them XVIII.   Youwarkee with child—Their stock of provisions—No beast or fish in Youwarkee’s country—The voices again—Her reason for not seeing those who uttered them—She bears a son—A hard speech in her lying-in—Divers birds appear—Their eggs gathered—How Wilkins kept account of time XIX.   Wilkins’s concern about clothing for Pedro, his eldest son—His discourse with his wife about the ship—Her flight to it—His melancholy reflections till her return—An account of what she had done, and of what she brought—She clothes her children, and takes a second flight XX.   The author observes her flight—A description of a glumm in the graundee—She finds out the gulf not far from the ship—Brings home more goods—Makes her a gown by her husband’s instruction XXI.  The author gets a breed of poultry, and by what means—Builds them a house—How he managed to keep them in winter XXII.  Reflections on mankind—The author wants to be with his ship—Projects going, but perceives it impracticable—Youwarkee offers her service, and goes—An account of her transactions on board—Remarks on her sagacity—She despatches several chests of goods through the gulf to the lake—An account of a danger she escaped—The author has a fit of sickness XXIII. The religion of the author’s family XXIV.  The author’s account of his children—Their names—They are exercised in flying—His boat crazy—Youwarkee intends a visit to her father, but first takes another flight to the ship—Sends a boat and chests through the gulf—Clothes her children—Is with child again, so her visit is put off—An inventory of the last freight of goods—The author’s method of treating his children—Youwarkee, her son Tommy, with her daughters Patty and Hallycarnie, set out to her father’s XXV. Youwarkee’s account of the stages to Arndrumnstake—The author uneasy at her flight—His employment in her absence, and preparations for receiving her father—How he spent the evenings with the children XXVI. The Author’s concern at Youwarkee’s stay—Reflections on his condition—Hears a voice call him—Youwarkee’s brother Quangrollart visits him with a companion—He treats them at the grotto—The brother discovers himself by accident—Wilkins produces his children to him XXVII. Quangrollart’s account of Youwarkee’s journey, and reception at her father’s     V OLUME II     I.    A discourse on light—Quangrollart explains the word crashee—Believes a fowl is a fruit—Gives a further account of Youwarkee’s reception by her father, and by the king—Tommy and Hallycarnie provided for at court—Youwarkee and her father visit the colambs, and are visited—Her return put off till next winter, when her father is to come with her    II.    The author shows Quangrollart and Rosig his poultry—They are surprised at them—He takes them a-fishing—They wonder at his cart, and at his shooting a fowl—They are terribly frightened at the firing of the gun—Wilkins pacifies them   III.    Peter prepares for his father’s reception—Arguments about his beard—Expects his wife—Reflections on her not coming—Sees a messenger on the rock—Has notice of Pendlehamby’s arrival, and prepares a treat     IV.   Peter settles the formality, of his father’s reception—Description of their march, and alighting; receives his father—Conducts him to the grotto—Offers to beg pardon for his mandate—Is prevented by Pendlehamby—Youwarkee not known in the English habit—Quarters the officers in the tent     V.    The manner of their dinner—Believe the fish and fowl to be fruits—Hears his brother and the colambs are coming—Account of their lying—Peter’s reflections on the want of the graundee—They view the arkoe—Servants harder to please than their masters—Reason for different dresses the same day     VI.  Quangrollart arrives with the colambs—Straitened for accommodation—Remove to the tent—Youwarkee not known—Peter relates part of his travels—Dispute about the beast-fish skins     VII. Go a-fishing—Catch a beast-fish—Afraid of the gun—How Peter altered his net—Fish dinner for the guards—Method of dressing and eating it    VIII. A shooting proposed—All afraid of the gun but one private guard—His behaviour—Pendlehamby at Peter’s request makes him a general—Peter’s discourse thereon—Remainder of his story—The colambs return   IX.    Peter finds his stores low—Sends Youwarkee to the ship—Receives an invitation to Georigetti’s court     X.   Nasgig comes with a guard to fetch Peter—Long debate about his going—Nasgig’s uneasiness at Peter’s refusal—Relates a prediction to him, and proceedings thereon at Georigetti’s court—Peter consents to go—Prepares a machine for that purpose     XI. Peter’s speech to the soldiery—Offers them freedom—His journey—Is m