Defoe, Daniel. Captain Singleton. Ed. Manushag N. Powell.

Abstract

In his recent “Thoughts on Reviewing Textbook Editions and Student Companions,” long-time Scriblerian Book Review Editor Melvyn New encouraged book reviewers to acknowledge the difference between “[t]extbook editions . . . directed toward students” and “scholarly editions directed toward those professors who teach them” (Scriblerian 52:1,77). In Powell’s edition of Captain Singleton, New’s student-centered mandate has been amply fulfilled in a way that will materially assist and delight instructors as well. Powell’s approach to editing Defoe’s work has strengths in three areas: an introduction that is accessibly written and well-researched, footnotes that provide support for readers in several important areas, and a well-selected set of appendices. Add to all these desirable qualities a reasonable price at $18.50 and instructors would serve their students well by adding Powell’s edition to any course calling for a reading of Defoe’s Captain Singleton.The introduction begins with an appealing description of the initial moment of the text’s publication and its first readers, which includes the eighteenth-century book-selling environment, not easily decipherable by modern readers. For example, Powell explains how the first edition would have been positioned in the marketplace based on its physical properties: “Singleton’s first form was an octavo volume, meaning that each printed sheet was folded three times to create eight leaves before being stitched together with its fellows: this made it cheaper and less luxurious than a quarto or folio work [she also defines these terms parenthetically] . . . but at a price of 5 shillings bound, it would still have been, practically speaking, very much a luxury item: something along the lines of £75 in modern money.” As this passage demonstrates, Powell routinely inserts useful definitions into her prose without bogging down the pace of the discussion.In addition to the other useful primers provided in the introduction on Defoe’s biography, piracy during the era, and the major critical debates that swirl around the novel, another added value is Powell’s discussion of the peculiar and often perplexing way that Defoe writes about African geography. “During its daring trek across the African continent, the narrative makes numerous gestures that give the impression of accuracy with respect to distances and directions, but the truth is that Bob and his fellow travelers are often lost—as are their readers.” Powell’s treatment of the issue is particularly endearing as she shows herself as susceptible to Defoe’s machinations as any other reader: “I include in this volume a period-appropriate map of Africa (Figure 4), but without attempting to mark Singleton’s route across it. Readers who try will find their attempts to sketch the journey Bob Singleton describes with any precision onto existing maps—I have made many such attempts over the years—are exasperating, to say the least.” Further, Powell skillfully positions this vexing reading experience as central to the work of interpretation: “I do offer a reading of Singleton in which uncertainty and mistrust among people, markets, and even the very landscape are fundamental throughlines of the narrative.” While I initially found the term “throughlines” a little perplexing (as a compound word, though through lines as defined by the OED is an entirely appropriate metaphorical gesture given its nautical links), the argumentative thrust of the introduction is nevertheless clear and compelling.Powell often drives her argumentative points home stylistically, such as in this charming flourish used to end a paragraph in which she contends that the “unattainable desire for an accurate map of the first half of Captain Singleton . . . is, as they say, a feature, not a bug.” The assertion that Powell’s introduction is well written can also be illustrated by a passage in which Defoe’s reputation for realism is problematized using a delightfully apropos argumentative metaphor: “Authors were free, in many cases, to act as pirates, plundering what supplies and treasures they needed from any ship that floated by and bending them to their own uses.” Defoe’s use of Robert Knox in this way is well documented in the footnotes and appendix. Powell’s editorial style is consistently empathetic to reader and text alike: “Readers can struggle with the strangeness of Captain Singleton . . . The narrative is sprawling, often discombobulated, by turns warmly wry and estranging; it is also a more daring and powerful form than the standard criminal biography.” Similarly, the “Note on the Text” is written with a careful eye to the reading experience by adroitly addressing the “tricky question[s]” of period typographical conventions. However, Powell clearly explains her choice to produce “a clean, modern type-faced eighteenth-century text . . . while preserving the original typography” and thus amply prepares her readers for what they will be experiencing in the text itself.Thankfully, the expertly woven texture and lively style of the introductory elements of the edition extend into Powell’s notes as well. The footnotes cover a helpful array of topics, some predictable and necessary, others that are more unexpected and refreshing. Historical context is provided, along with noting places where Defoe’s account contrasts with known history (e.g., “But Bob’s assessment does not tally with contemporary accounts of African-European trade.”) Powell also illuminates where Defoe’s novel is intersecting with other texts (e.g., by John Locke, Aesop’s Fables, Peter Pan), including helpful biblical cues (e.g., Ruth’s pledge as context for Bob and William’s vows), as well as a running thread of comparisons to Robinson Crusoe and Farther Adventures. Insightful readings of the text by critics are noted (e.g., Srinivas Aravamudan on pederasty and Shiv K. Kumar on the Congo). In addition, Powell recurrently sheds light on the myriad of nautical terms used in the text (e.g., quarter-deck, berth), as well as other more sporadic topics of interest, such as chemistry (potassium nitrate), medical practices (e.g., bloodletting and gangrene), and cultural frames regarding hair and beards. Also helpful are the notes regarding words modern readers might misapprehend as seemingly familiar but which have different meanings in the eighteenth-century context (e.g., wanted, lusty). Overall, the footnotes do much of the heavy lifting required to make Defoe’s novel legible for today’s students by exhibiting a healthy empathy and pedagogical instinct for guiding those readers’ experiences.The appendix addresses the Defoe attribution disputes regarding The King of the Pirates and includes primary texts related to travel writing and piracy by important period figures (e.g., Robert Knox, Robert Drury’s Journal, and William Dampier). The appendices are also well supported with footnotes helpful to the student reader. The final strength of this classroom- worthy edition lies in its combined Works Cited and Selected Bibliography that includes more valuable references than even the editor in her well-sourced introduction and footnotes could arrange to cite (my own included, but no hard feelings). Those instructors looking to adopt an edition of Defoe’s Captain Singleton that will help guide twenty-first-century students through the foreign land of Defoe’s eighteenth-century novel need look no further than Broadview’s latest offering edited by Manushag N. Powell.