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The Storm (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Daniel Defoe
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $7.97
You Save: $6.03 (43%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 810439
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0141439920
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.34920941
EAN: 9780141439921
ASIN: 0141439920
Publication Date: May 31, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
On the evening of November 26, 1703, a hurricane from the north Atlantic hammered into Britain: it remains the worst storm the nation has ever experienced. Eyewitnesses saw cows thrown into trees and windmills ablaze from the friction of their whirling sailsand some 8,000 people lost their lives. For Defoe, bankrupt and just released from prison for his seditious writings, the storm struck during one of his bleakest moments. But it also furnished him with material for his first book, and in this powerful depiction of suffering and survival played out against a backdrop of natural devastation we can trace the outlines of Defoes later masterpieces, A Journal of the Plague Year and Robinson Crusoe.
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| Customer Reviews:
 An hurricane in Britain .. strange but real January 28, 2008
It was the evening of 26 November 1703 when a still powerful hurricane that crossed all the atlantic was about to hit Britain. Life was as usual althought climate had been very peculiar days before, with strong winds from the south. It was the time when the cathedral of St Paul was being reconstructed and it was the time of the very well known fiction writer, Daniel Defoe. In this, one of his first works, he provide a serie of accounts of the event from several sources, several stories of how this dreadful storm hit people's towns, houses and ships. 'Tis interesting to note that chimneys were the major killers in houses and that lots of trees were also lost, especially elms. People didn't blame climate change, too much C02 in the air or anything else, but God's fury.
What attracted me to this book was the very unique case, when an "extratropical hurricane" (not tropical), likely originated in the atlantic east of florida, diverted its path and managed to cross the whole Atlantic to reach Britain with such strong force, knowing that those waters in the north atlantic are very cold. A strange phenomena indeed, and an event printed in history by a great writer of the time, Daniel Defoe. Part of his life is depicted in the introduction chapter of the book and to tell you the truth, I'd really like to read his biography.
 obscured by fiction May 5, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Until now Defoe's The Storm hasn't been in print as a single volume since the mid 19th century. The reason being that since the mid 19th century the public has preferred to see Defoe as a fictionist like Dickens, which has degraded the value of his Journal of the Plague Year and consigned The Storm to oblivion. These works form a pair, both being about national disasters of historic significance. The difference in style is that The Storm consists of Defoe's own observations and research, and a collection of eyewitness accounts from around the nation that Defoe advertised for, while A Journal of the Plague Year has the eyewitness account and Defoe's research blended together into one common narrative. No other journalist has ever done that (perhaps this is why the audacity of Jack Shephard appealed to him). But if you read the Plague Year as fiction it would be like trying to read The Storm as fiction.
Weather experts have always commented favourably on The Storm and it is legendary. Like the Plague Year, this book is great to read through and browse in afterwards as well - it is not a book to throw away. Penguin has retained the dynamics of Defoe's original punctuation, but I wish that the print was bigger and blacker and more comnfortable to read.
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