Résumé
Résumé de Le colonel Jack
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who enjoy a rogue's adventures that grow into a moral story, and who like to follow one life through crime, travel, war and trade, with a narrator who judges himself as sharply as anyone.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Colonel Jack is a novel by Daniel Defoe, written in the form of a memoir by a man who begins life as a nameless boy in the glassworks of London and ends as a rich planter, soldier and merchant. Defoe wrote it in the years after Robinson Crusoe, and he gives his hero a long, restless life that crosses Britain, Scotland, Virginia, France, Italy and the Spanish Americas.
The man who tells the tale is called Jacque as a child, because every boy in his nurse's care is named John. His nurse tells him he is a gentleman, and that single idea follows him through every disaster. He wants to be a gentleman, but he has no idea what the word means. Over the years he learns that honesty, not rank or money, is the heart of it.
You get a street boy's view of London crime, a sharp look at life on a Maryland plantation, and a run of wars, wives and shipwrecks. Along the way Jacque asks himself what he owes to others, and to God. Let us begin where he does, in the ashes of the glasshouse.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Three Johns Grow Up in the AshesFree
- 2Crime Takes Hold of Two Brothers
- 3A Boy's Gold and a Boy's Honesty
- 4Will, the Gang and a Poor Woman's Shilling
- 5Flight Into Scotland and the Soldier's Life
- 6Sold in Virginia, Raised in Maryland
- 7A Planter, a Tutor and a Sense of Sin
- 8Captured, Married and Betrayed
- 9What the Story Is Really About
- 10How the Tale Is Told
Point clé 1 sur 10
Three Johns Grow Up in the Ashes
The story starts with a boy who knows nothing about his own birth. His nurse, who has been paid to raise him, tells him he is a gentleman, but she cannot give him a surname. Since she has three boys in her care and all are named John, they are all called Jacque. To keep the peace, she makes her own son Captain Jacque and promises the narrator he will be a colonel, which she says is a better rank.
The boys grow up near Goodman's Fields in the east of London. Captain Jacque is sullen, cruel and born to steal. The youngest, Major Jacque, is merry, brave and generous, the son of a guardsman. The narrator is the quick, tractable one, the boy who listens and remembers.
When the nurse dies, poor and buried by the parish, the three boys are turned loose. They sleep in the warm ash pits of the glassworks on Rosemary Lane, and they live on errands and on the kindness of neighbours. The narrator has a name for honesty, and shopkeepers leave him to mind their stalls.
He also loves talking to old soldiers and sailors, and he picks up the history of the wars from them. Even in rags, he keeps hold of one idea: that he is meant for better things.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Le colonel Jack
What is Colonel Jack about?
It is the memoir of a London street boy who grows up among thieves and then becomes a pickpocket, soldier, servant, planter and merchant. He tries to be a gentleman and slowly learns that honesty is what counts.
Is Colonel Jack a true story?
No. Daniel Defoe wrote it as fiction in the form of a real memoir. He gives so many details of places, coins and goods that it feels like a true account.
Why is he called Colonel Jack?
His nurse tells the boy he is a gentleman and promises he will be a colonel, a higher rank than her own son's captain. The name sticks, and the boys are all called Jacque.
What is a picaresque novel?
It is a story about a clever rogue who moves from one adventure to the next, often across social classes. Colonel Jack fits this form, with its loose chain of scrapes, trades and journeys.
Is Colonel Jack easy to read?
It is told in a clear, first-person voice with lively dialogue and many short scenes. Chases, trials, sea voyages and battles keep the story moving, so it reads like an adventure.