The Coherence of Defoe's "Captain Singleton"

Abstract

IAN WATT HAS SAID Defoe's novels lack larger coherences found in the greatest literature;' by this assessment The Life, Adventures and Pyracies, of the Famous Singleton (1720) would seem to be doubly damned. It has fallen far short of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders in attaining the rank of greatest literature, and its incredible story of a young, violent sailor who participates in two mutiny attempts, crosses Africa with a band of Portuguese sailors, becomes a famous pirate, and finally retires a rich and repentant Christian, has struck readers as having, at best, the smaller coherences of travel and adventure literature. Singleton thus owns a slim critical heritage best represented by James Sutherland: From first to last Singleton is an adventure story, and little else.2 Yet, though the novel's coherence has not been elucidated, in the last decade its status as an adventure story alone has been questioned. Shiv K. Kumar, the most recent editor of Singleton, characterizes it as following Defoe's cycle of sin and redemption and being a statement of his basic ideas about sin, repentance, enlightenment and grace.3 According to Gary J. Scrimgeour, the narrative methods in the African half of the novel suggest that an attempt at realism of surface or of characterization was totally subordinated to interests.4 And Manuel Schonhorn, in a provocative article dealing with Singleton's career as a pirate, demonstrates Captain Singleton bears little similarity to those piratical records it was intended to resemble.5 Scrimgeour sees Defoe's other interests in the African half of Singleton as commercial, and thus unrelated to literature.6 But what is to be concluded if the African half of the novel, which is not the realistic