Reviewed by:

• Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe
• Srividhya Swaminathan (bio)

Captain Singleton is not often thought of as a masterpiece of the Daniel Defoe canon. In her introduction to the reissue of Shiv Kumar’s 1969 Oxford edition, Penelope Wilson deemed that the novel was not comparable in “literariness” because it was “a hasty attempt to repeat the success of Robinson Crusoe” (Oxford University Press, 1990, vii). As the first long work of prose fiction following the wildly popular Robinson Crusoe, this story returns to the themes of trade, commerce, and encounters with the Other; however, unlike Crusoe, Singleton ranges over vast geographical distances and interacts with a greater mix of peoples, both European and non-European. In scope, Singleton’s journey reads partly as a travel narrative (with colonialist overtones) and partly as pirate narrative (with mercantilist overtones), so critics point to a lack of internal cohesion that makes the novel difficult to discuss. However, scholarly interest in the text has been consistent, mainly because of the improbably rich detail of both Singleton’s journey across the interior of Africa and his success as a pirate in the Atlantic. As an adventure story, Singleton has a great deal a merit, so a teaching edition of this novel was long overdue.

Manushag N. Powell’s carefully edited and meticulously researched edition does an outstanding job of combining interpretive lens and pedagogical glossing. In her introduction, she states that the edition is “specifically meant for the enjoyment of classrooms,” and she helps to frame a classroom accessible to specialists and generalists who might make use of the novel (9). The succinct, twenty-five-page introduction provides a useful overview of the scholarship around the novel— Singleton’s engagement with piracy and African enslavement; his strong homosocial or homoerotic bond with William; his creative description of unknown (during his time) global geographies—framing the text as providing greater nuance to the worldview that Defoe creates so vividly in Robinson Crusoe. Powell also suggests a useful interpretive lens to guide both teacher and student reading the novel. Rather than reconciling the bifurcated narrative or choosing to privilege one type of narration over the other, she reads the novel as Defoe’s response to English cultural anxieties about trade, commerce, and colonial acquisition. With its many shifting landscapes (and seascapes), Singleton’s story expands the ideas that were so compelling in Crusoe’s narrative. Singleton experiences various forms of captivity, turns to piracy, and finally retires in secrecy with his dubiously acquired fortune and close confidante, William. As he tries to find his place in the world, Singleton develops [End Page 325] as a character from an amoral young man who has been cast adrift from his sense of place and identity to a successful trader who forms strong ties through his friendship with William, the Quaker, to a home. Powell characterizes the novel as “a tale of a man fated to feel forever apart from humankind but still searching high and low for a sense of connection” (13). This act of searching—for human connection, for prosperity through trade, for a sense of place—comes through in Powell’s glossing of the text.

Previous editions, specifically Kumar (1969, 1990) and the Furbank and Owens (2008), target specific audiences. Kumar’s annotations are primarily explanations of terms used in the novel and are aimed at students unfamiliar with eighteenth-century contexts. Furbank and Owens are oriented toward scholars. This edition seems more ambitious in appealing to teachers, students, and scholars alike. Reading the novel as a response to Crusoe, Powell includes short statements of com parison that would assist in teaching the two novels together. For non-specialists in particular, the explanatory footnotes provide helpful suggestions for how the text can be engaged to facilitate classroom discussion. For example, when Bob crosses the continent and suggests the idea of enslaving the native African population, Powell comments that “the complective otherness of Black Africans was one among a host of factors (including religion and culture) that made them appear, to the Europeans, as enslavable, but it was...

审核人：

• 丹尼尔·迪福（Daniel Defoe）的辛格尔顿船长
• 斯里维迪亚·斯瓦米纳坦（Sirvidhya Swaminathan）

辛格尔顿船长通常不被认为是丹尼尔·迪福（Daniel Defoe）佳能的杰作。佩内洛普·威尔逊（Penelope Wilson）在Shiv Kumar 1969年牛津版再版的介绍中，认为这部小说在“文学性”方面不具有可比性，因为这是“仓促重演鲁滨逊·克鲁索的成功”（牛津大学出版社，1990年，vii）。 。作为广受欢迎的鲁滨逊·克鲁索（Robinson Crusoe）之后散文小说的第一部长篇作品，这个故事又回到了贸易，商业和与他人相遇的主题；但是，与克鲁索不同，辛格尔顿遍布广阔的地理范围，并且与欧洲和非欧洲人民的互动更为广泛。在范围上，辛格尔顿的旅程部分被解读为旅行叙事（带有殖民主义的色彩），部分被解读为海盗叙事（带有重商主义的色彩），因此批评家指出缺乏内在的凝聚力，这使得小说难以讨论。但是，学者对文本的兴趣一直是一致的，这主要是因为辛格尔顿穿越非洲内陆的旅程以及他作为大西洋海盗的成功都包含了难以置信的丰富细节。作为一个冒险故事，辛格尔顿（Singleton）有很多优点，因此该小说的教学版早就该发行了。

Manushag N. Powell精心编辑和精心研究的版本在将解释性镜片和教学法光泽相结合方面做得非常出色。在她的简介中，她指出该版本“专门用于教室的享受”，并且她帮助构架了可能会使用这本小说的专家和通才使用的教室（9）。简洁，长达25页的简介对小说的学术研究提供了有用的概述：辛格尔顿对海盗和非洲奴役的参与；他与威廉有很强的同性社会或同性恋关系；他对未知（在他的时代）全球地理的创造性描述-将文字描述为对迪福在鲁滨逊·克鲁索（Robinson Crusoe）中如此生动地创造的世界观提供了更细微的差别。鲍威尔还建议使用一种有用的解释镜头来指导老师和学生阅读小说。她没有把分歧的叙述调和，也没有选择让一种叙述优先于另一种叙述，而是将这部小说读作是笛福对英国关于贸易，商业和殖民地获得的文化焦虑的回应。凭借其多变的景观（和海景），辛格尔顿的故事扩展了克鲁索（Crusoe）叙事中如此引人入胜的想法。辛格尔顿（Singleton）经历了各种形式的被囚禁，转向海盗活动，最后以其可疑的财富和密友红颜知己威廉（William）秘密退休。当他试图在世界上找到自己的位置时，辛格尔顿不断发展壮大[结束第325页]他是一位不道德的年轻人的角色，这位年轻人已经摆脱了自己的处境和身份认同，而成为一个成功的商人，他通过与威廉·奎克（Waker）的友谊与家庭建立了牢固的联系。鲍威尔将这部小说描述为“一个人注定要与人类永远分开，但仍在高低寻求联系感的故事”（13）。鲍威尔（Bowell）对案文的掩饰体现了这种寻求人际关系，通过贸易实现繁荣，寻求场所感的行为。

以前的版本，特别是Kumar（1969，1990）和Furbank和Owens（2008），是针对特定的受众的。库玛的注解主要是对小说中所用术语的解释，主要针对不熟悉18世纪语境的学生。Furbank和Owens面向学者。此版本似乎在吸引老师，学生和学者方面更具野心。阅读小说作为对克鲁索的回应，鲍威尔附有简短的比较声明，有助于将这两本小说一起教授。特别是对于非专业人士，解释性脚注为如何使用文本以促进课堂讨论提供了有益的建议。例如，当鲍勃（Bob）穿越大陆并提出奴役非洲原住民的想法时，鲍威尔评论说：“黑人非洲人的强迫性异性是使他们出现的众多因素之一（包括宗教和文化）之一。 ，可奴役的，但这是...