Memoirs of a Cavalier

by Daniel Defoe, John Mullan (Introduction), James T. Boulton (Editor)

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: 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.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Historical, Literature, British Literature

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1720

About the author

Daniel Defoe was an English novelist, journalist, merchant, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.
Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works—books, pamphlets, and journals—on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of business journalism and economic journalism.

Reviews

[W.D. Clarke]

Jesus wept. You know, it is kinda hard to pinpoint just who the target audience of this book might be.

(i) Connoisseurs and aficionados of 17C military-history-at-the-skirmish-level?
(ii) e18C lowland Scottish great-grandparents wishing to poison their wee bairns' minds with the pre-history of their forefathers' antics in the century before the Act of Union (for while the Scots are celebrated in the continental wars in the first half of the book, they are ranked below even the Portuguese in Double-D's international ranking of perfidy in the second half of this odd book, which provides the discerning reader with one of the most micro-detailed, and yet macro—vague, accounts of the English Civil War imaginable--but then, that's just Defiloe's killer-duller secret ingredient in this unleavened loaf of a "novel")?
(iii) Foolhardy Defoe completists?

Whatever. You know, I am not normally one to celebrate a classic book going out of print (in fact, was just this week lamenting, with a fellow GR-er, the banishment of Dryden and Arnold from the Oxford Authors series after it trimmed down to its current incarnation, Major Works), but this particular Oxford Worlds Classics is out of print, and halle-bloody-luia for that.

For my part (perhaps DD's favourite phrase evah) I ordered an Outta Print OWC copy a month ago, second hand (but no doubt pri-freaking-stinely unread) from the UK, and haven't even gotten it yet. No. But I just hadta pony up $1.99 or whatever to rush on to read the Delphi eBook version [thems 5000 e-pages of Defoevian goodness spanning 545 titles, people!] instead). I will read the introduction and endnotes when I finally do receive the Oxford, then shelve this sucker in between Captain Singleton (1720) and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), to never again see the blessed light of day.

[Arthur]

A near 9 hour audiobook that, unfortunately, was a few hours too long. The first few hours were engrossing, but they took a downward turn at roughly the midway point.

[Lukerik]

A nice edition, sadly out of print. Well constructed, reprinting essentially the text of the first edition with sensible introduction and notes.

As to the novel itself, if you’re coming to it from Moll Flanders or Roxana, prepare to be disappointed. Despite the opening, which promises a counterpoint between fate revealed through dreams on the one hand and education (presumably Defoe’s beloved Reason) on the other, this is not carried through. It’s essentially the military equivalent of Journal of the Plague Year. If you’ve come to Memoirs from that I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised as this has a clear narrative drive.

My knowledge of the period is too slight to judge for myself how historically accurate it is, but references in the notes to errors are few and far between and Prince Rupert is as much of an arsehole here as he is in Pepys. The tone is certainly spot on throughout and it appears to have fooled people at the time into thinking it was a real memoir.

It may not be a great novel but then it wasn’t meant to be taken as one, and reading it as was intended is the way to enjoying this bizarre experiment in verisimilitude.

[Clif]

Author Daniel Defoe, a prolific writer, is best known for his Robinson Crusoe. This work is a fictional account of the life of a soldier become officer in the 17th century. The protagonist is an English Man of Quality (heir to an estate) that takes on military command as a matter of course and rises to the point of advising first one king and then another.

First fighting in Germany our cavalier with all others on the side of Protestantism is enthralled by the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, the heroic royal who intervenes with his army to save the cause against the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor in the Thirty Years War. As our man quickly rises to become a confidant of the King, we get the details of each battle featuring the moves and countermoves of Horse and Foot providing the realism for which this work has been praised. Victory comes with the Treaty of Westphalia, ending the first half of the text.

My interest in this book arose from the knowledge that it dealt with the English Civil War, to which the second half is devoted. Our cavalier takes up the cause of the King against Parliament, commenting freely on the virtues and flaws of tactics, while always following command. There is more of the same detail on battles as contending forces move around England.

Initial success for the King ends with the famous battle of Marston Moor where a young Oliver Cromwell commands a portion of Parliament's forces. Our man is separated from his army and a series of interesting adventures follow as the small company of cavalry attempts to survive in hostile territory.

The end of our cavalier's service comes with the capitulation of the King. The final pages of the book depart entirely from the previous text to provide an odd compendium of notable dates. For example, "The same day the King defeated (General) Essex in the West (of England), his son, Charles the Second, was defeated at Worcester." An impressive list of such dates is provided followed by observations on the Civil War indicating the nation devouring nature of conflict within one country. This summation of the war that extends far beyond the period covered by the story just told provides the information I was hoping would be the topic of the main text.

Our man is virtuous and not given to doubt. He spurns the advances of a prostitute early in the book and does the right thing in almost every instance, expressing regret for the most trivial errors of judgement. For anyone not interested in battlefield deployments and the movement of forces, this book would be a long haul. It is interesting for Defoe's use of the language, quite different in phrasing from modern English, but easily understandable. The typography is curious. Every noun is capitalized and all names, whether of people or places are in italics.

[Newell]

Daniel Defoe wrote during the very beginnings of the creation of the novel as we know it. His book Robinson Crusoe was a huge hit and was a groundbreaker in fiction in the way it presented the story. This book, Memoirs .... was quite different in that it was essentially like a James Mitchner Historical Book giving vast detail about the period of history included in the book with the intent of instructing the reader as to the subject matter. In this Mr Defoe succeeded quite well, one can begin this book knowing nothing about the 30 years war in Europe nor anything about the English Civil War and end up fairly well informed about both. An aside about the 30 years war; It could reasonably be called World War I since it involved most of the countries of Europe and killed about 8 million people. I recommend Memoirs.... with the caveat that it is dense with detail to the point of being boring at points, just keep thinking James Mitchner Historical Novel and you get the picture.

[Mr Scott Birnie]

Unbelievably fantastic

One of the best books I have read, it really enlightened me into the history surrounding the period or era of the English civil war, which was something I never studied in any great detail during my school years. I feel it's an area that education should focus on so much more, as to be able to understand the complexity of religion, politics and monarchs(sovereigns/sovereignty), that were involved and that even these higher members of society and upper class people sold each other out an switched sides so much they, could never totally explain or understand in the first place what they were fighting for.

[Michael Eklund]

Defoe wrote this like an old memoir. Well done by Defoe, and it does have some charm and some colour of the times, but I think you really have to be an ECW aficionado to value this book.

No maps in this edition, no index nor footnotes. I could really have used a list of persons. And no chapters, just two parts.

So, really, a bit boring.

[David]

The Thirty Years War To The English Civil War. The book starts before the Thirty Years with an English man joining the Swedish Army. He tells of his life and adventures in the Swedish Army. Then his Life in the Army of King Charles during the English Civil War. I highly recommend.

[Kit]

The back cover makes it sound like Defoe wanted to write a fake memoir of a military man to show how incapable someone who was in the middle of great events might be at putting them into a coherent picture with some perspective. In practice that means that this novel seems entirely lacking in structure and comes down to a seemingly endless and shapeless parade of bare names and dates without much narrative fleshing out of characters or scenes. And then... and then... and then... I think I know less about the Thirty Years War now than I did a month ago. The first time Defoe has let me down. Better to pick up Moll Flanders again....

[Marko]

A relatively interesting read to someone who is enthused by the period, mainly the Thirty Years War and English Civil War, but leaves a lot to hope for when it comes to being a good novel and having interesting characters. I only read the first part concerning the Thirty Years War because that is the time and setting that I'm most interested in.

You can read my full review at:
http://susimetsa.blogspot.fi/2015/07/...

[Gary Howes]

A hard read how he survived all them battles is a bit hard to believe recommended if you know your English civil war history really well and you know about the thirty years war overall I rate it three stars glad I give it ago
This one not for me but probably worth more stars if you know your history well

[incipit mania]

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