Memoirs of a Cavalier

1720 novel by Daniel Defoe

Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720) is a work of historical fiction by Daniel Defoe, set during the Thirty Years' War and the English Civil Wars. The full title, which bore no date, was:[1]

> Memoirs of a Cavalier; or A Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, and the Wars in England. From the Years 1632 to 1648. Written threescore years ago, by an English gentleman, who served first in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, the Glorious King of Sweden, till his death, and after that in the Royal Army of King Charles the First, from the beginning of the Rebellion to the end of the War.[2]

## Nominal author

[edit]

Main article: Andrew Newport

The nominal author of the work was a 'Colonel Andrew Newport', a Shropshire-born soldier. He has been speculatively identified with the Andrew Newport (1622-1699).[3] However the work was published over 20 years after the death of this Andrew Newport, who was only ten years old in the year the account begins (1632). Although of age (20 in 1642) to have served in the English Civil War, there is doubt about this due to the absence of any record that he did, and he appears in no list of Royalists fined by parliament for 'delinquency', unlike his father and elder brother.[4]

## Literary influence

[edit]

Winston Churchill modeled his six-volume histories The World Crisis and The Second World War on Memoirs of a Cavalier. Defoe's method "in which the author hangs the chronicle and discussion of great military and political events upon the thread of the personal experiences of an individual" suited Churchill's sprawling histories of World War I and World War II. In defending this stylistic choice, Churchill wrote, "I am perhaps the only man who has passed through both the two supreme cataclysms of recorded history in high Cabinet office."[5]

## Footnotes

[edit]

1. ^ G. A. Aitken, 1908. "Introduction."
2. ^ Memoirs of a Cavalier; or A Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, and the Wars in England. From the Years 1632 to 1648. Written threescore years ago, by an English gentleman, who served first in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, the Glorious King of Sweden, till his death, and after that in the Royal Army of King Charles the First, from the beginning of the Rebellion to the end of the War (2 ed.). Leedes: printed by James Lister and sold by John Scolfield, bookseller in Rochdale etc. 1750. Retrieved 23 August 2015. "editions:5D6G0Icay3QC." via Google Books
3. ^ Dickins, Gordon (1987). An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire. Shropshire Libraries. p. 22\. ISBN 0-903802-37-6.
4. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 40. p. 670.
5. ^ Churchill, Winston (1948). The Gathering Storm. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. iii.

## External links

[edit]

* Daniel Defoe, G. A. Aitken (editor). Memoirs of a Cavalier. Everyman's Library. London: J.M. Dent; New York: E.P. Dutton. 1908. From Internet Archive.
* Daniel Defoe. Memoirs of a Cavalier. Un-sourced e-text from Project Gutenberg.

* v
* t
* e

Works by Daniel Defoe

Novels|

* Robinson Crusoe (1719)
* The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719)
* Captain Singleton (1720)
* Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720)
* Moll Flanders (1722)
* Colonel Jack (1722)
* A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
* Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (1724)

Other fiction|

* The Consolidator or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon (1705)
* The Apparition of Mrs. Veal (1706)
* Atlantis Major (1711)
* The King of Pirates (1719)
* The Pirate Gow, an account of John Gow

Non-fiction|

* An Essay Upon Projects
* The Storm (1704)
* The Family Instructor (1715)
* Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe (1720)
* A General History of the Pyrates (1724, disputed)
* A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain (1724-27)
* The Complete English Tradesman
* The Political History of the Devil (1726)
* Mere Nature Delineated (1726)
* Conjugal Lewdness (1727)
* A Plan of the English Commerce (1728)

Essays|

* The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702)
* Castration of Popish Ecclesiastics (1720, attributed)
* An Essay Upon Literature (1726)
* Conjugal Lewdness (1727)
* Augusta Triumphans (1728)
* Second Thoughts Are Best (1729)

Poems|

* The True-Born Englishman (1701)
* Hymn to the Pillory (1703)

This article about a historical novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page.

|

* v
* t
* e

This article about an 18th century novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template