The Storm

The Storm holds a special place in the writings of Daniel Defoe. Widely considered a founding document of modern journalism, The Storm narrates the calamitous events of November 1703 that are framed by the author in the first four chapters. These are followed by verbatim eyewitness accounts, solicited from survivors through a newspaper advertisement that Defoe placed shortly after the hurricane struck.

e I draw,
I'm in the Limbus of the Law.
Let me be where I will I heard the Storm,
From every Blast it eccho'd thus, REFORM;
I felt the mighty Shock, and saw the Night,
When Guilt look'd pale, and own'd the Fright;
And every Time the raging Element
Shook London's lofty Towers, at every Rent20
The falling Timbers gave, they cry'd, REPENT.

I saw, when all the stormy Crew,
Newly commission'd from on high,
Newly instructed what to do,
[Pg 4]In Lowring, Cloudy, Troops drew nigh:

They hover'd o'er the guilty Land,
As if they had been backward to obey;
As if they wondred at the sad Command,
And pity'd those they shou'd destroy.
But Heaven, that long had gentler Methods tried,30
And saw those gentler Methods all defied,
Had now resolv'd to be obey'd.
The Queen, an Emblem of the soft, still, Voice,
Had told the Nation how to make their Choice;
Told them the only Way to Happiness
Was by the Blessed Door of Peace.
But the unhappy Genius of the Land,
Deaf to the Blessing, as to the Command,
<

A wonderful insight to the dreadful storm of 1703. Filled with letters from gentlemen describing the effects the storm had in their cities and towns. Leaves me hoping we don't suffer a storm like this anytime soon.

"But, the treasury of immediate cause is generally committed to nature; and if at any time we are driven to look beyond her, it is because we are out of the way: it is not because it is not in her, but because we cannot find it."

Wow. Amazing collection of his own observations of the terrible destruction of the storm, which sounds like a tornado/huricane combination from hell, PLUS he asked people of good repute, through newspaper ads, to send him their accounts of storms in their particular towns and villages. With those ad

The Great Storm of 1703 was significant not only because of its freakish nature, taking place on the verge of winter in the North Atlantic, and the tremendous damage it wrought to English shipping and trade, but to the fact that it likely spawned the whole industry of mass media.

Because of strict pr

Like Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, a wonderful piece of 18th century journalism. Letters from "witnesses" form part of the account, as does early weather data. How far these were accurate, and how "doctored" they were by Defoe will always be unclear.
Defoe was in trouble with the authorities (a

I love this book but I would not necessarily recommend it to everyone. If, however, you like eighteenth-century disaster stories, particularly with a lot of death, then this book is for you!

Daniel Defoe

The Storm

Daniel Defoe

Download Here

Downloading

Downloading

Downloading

How It Works

30-day FREE trial

UNLIMITED access

Forever Downloads

Significant Savings

Our Story

Welcome to All You Can Books, the ultimate destination for book lovers.