Part of the outstanding biographical series - edited by Richard Holmes -
that recovers the great classical tradition of English biography. Every
book is a biographical masterpiece, still thrilling to read and vividly
alive. In this pioneering series, Richard Holmes, the
world's leading Romantic biographer, sets out to recover the great
forgotten tradition of English biographical writing.
`I have had
no time for dusty tomes,' writes Holmes, `I have looked for brevity,
intelligence and style. Above all, I have sought out great biographical
writers: biographers with passion, biographers who have found a way to
the heart and soul of a memorable subject.' Jack Sheppard was
an 18th-century Houdini - a handsome young escape artist who broke out
of his cell on Newgate's grim Death Row three times. Jonathan Wild was
the infamous Thief-Taker General who helped to recapture him and many
other criminals, only to be tried and executed himself for racketeering,
among scenes of mayhem at Tyburn.
Daniel Defoe, the
master of adventure fiction, was fascinated by `True Confessions' and
the workings of the criminal personality (including its daring, its
stoicism and its humour). He was the first to retell these stories,
based on personal interviews in Newgate, which also include a thrilling
(sometimes hour by hour) reconstruction of events.
Defoe on Sheppard and Wild - Daniel Defoe
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