Defoe on Sheppard and Wild: The True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild by Daniel Defoe

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Richard Holmes. Defoe on Sheppard and Wild: The True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild by Daniel Defoe

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

NOTE ON DEFOE ATTRIBUTIONS

INDEX

FURTHER READING

SELECT CHRONOLOGY

CLASSIC BIOGRAPHIES EDITED BY RICHARD HOLMES

Copyright

About the Publisher

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DEFOE ON

SHEPPARD AND WILD

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The heterogeneous character of the pamphlet is obvious. There are passages that are evidently straight extracts from official court documents. There are fascinating but confused accounts of Sheppard’s escape methods, which sound like an Applebee ‘garreteer’ interviewing the prison turnkeys: ‘the only answer that is given to the whole at Newgate is, that the Devil came in person and assisted him.’ Equally, there are insertions of religious homily and contrition which surely emanate from the well-meaning Reverend Wagstaff.

Yet throughout the pamphlet there are brilliant, linking passages of narration which have all the stamp of Defoe. The section that begins with the vivid, unforgettable description of the London crowd ecstatically celebrating Sheppard’s first escape from the Newgate Condemned Hold in August has his touch: ‘His escape and his being so suddenly retaken made such a noise in the Town, that it was thought all the common people would have gone Mad about him, there being not a Porter to be had for love nor money, nor getting into an alehouse, for butchers, shoemakers, and barbers, all engaged in Controversies and Wagers about Sheppard …’

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