The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins (1751) is an adventure novel
by Robert Paltock. No doubt inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
(1719), Paltock's novel is a brilliant work of fiction in its own right,
earning praise from such figures as Walter Scott and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge. Republished in an influential 1884 edition with an
introduction by editor and academic Arthur Henry Bullen, The Life and
Adventures of Peter Wilkins remains a uniquely entertaining novel of
shipwreck, romance, and discovery. "It was about the middle of June,
when the days are there at the shortest, on a very starry and moonlight
night, that we observed at some distance a very black cloud, but
seemingly of no extraordinary size or height, moving very fast towards
us, and seeming to follow the ship, which then made great way." While
sailing around Cape Horn, the crew of the Hector spots a mysterious
object flying toward them in the sky. Alarmed, the men open fire,
causing the object to crash into the sea. Soon, cries for help alert
them to an old man afloat on the waves, grasping the remnants of his
flying machine for dear life. Safely on board, the man introduces
himself as Peter Wilkins. Decades prior, he left his home and family in
Cornwall to embark on a voyage to Africa. There, he was stolen into
slavery by Portuguese settlers, but managed to escape with the help of
the native Glanlepze and his wife. Later, Wilkins fell in with a group
of English prisoners, who managed to steal a Portuguese vessel before
being shipwrecked and lost at sea. The sole survivor, Wilkins washed
ashore on a desert island, where he would fight every second to survive.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript,
this edition of Robert Paltock's The Life and Adventures of Peter
Wilkins is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern
readers.
