16 h 18 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Can a London pickpocket rise in the world without leaving his conscience behind?
In Daniel Defoe’s Colonel Jack, a pickpocket’s life opens onto a wider world of adventure. Jack rises from the London streets to become a planter, soldier, and gentleman. Yet his changing place in society is only part of this tale of crime, conscience, and redemption.
First published in 1722, this classic picaresque tale follows Jack through sharply different walks of life. His rise brings a question into focus: what does it mean to become a gentleman? The pull lies in the distance between a criminal past, a new position, and the claims of conscience.
What you’ll discover
- A pickpocket’s beginnings Enter a story rooted in London’s streets, where Jack’s long rise begins.
- A life of adventure Follow Jack from pickpocket to planter, soldier, and gentleman across a changing life.
- Crime and conscience Explore the tension between getting ahead and facing the moral weight of crime.
- The meaning of gentility Consider what separates the standing of a gentleman from the demands of conscience.
- The hope of redemption Read a tale that places redemption alongside the restless movement of adventure.
Who will love it
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Three Johns Grow Up in the Ashes
- Crime Takes Hold of Two Brothers
- A Boy's Gold and a Boy's Honesty
- Will, the Gang and a Poor Woman's Shilling
- Flight Into Scotland and the Soldier's Life
- Sold in Virginia, Raised in Maryland
- A Planter, a Tutor and a Sense of Sin
- Captured, Married and Betrayed
- What the Story Is Really About
- How the Tale Is Told
Who’s who
- Colonel JacqueThe narrator, a street boy told he is a gentleman, who drifts through crime, war and trade, searching for what a gentleman really is.
- Captain JacqueHis older foster brother, a sullen, cruel and natural thief who drags the narrator into trouble wherever they go.
- Major JacqueThe youngest foster brother, a merry, brave and generous boy who takes up pickpocketing and later turns highwayman.
- Robin, called WillA skilled pickpocket who teaches the narrator the trade and later leads a gang of robbers and housebreakers.
- The Clerk and the MerchantTwo kind gentlemen who receive the stolen bills from a boy, pay him a reward and keep his gold safe.
- The Virginia MasterA rich, humane Maryland planter who frees the narrator and sets him up on his own land, hating cruelty toward servants.
- The TutorA transported felon and scholar who teaches the narrator Latin and gives him his first sense of repentance.
- The Narrator's WivesA series of spouses, some false and some faithful, whose conduct tests his judgment, his pride and his forgiveness.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 16 h 18 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Colonel Jack
by Daniel Defoe · 1722
A ragged boy in the ashes of a London glasshouse believes he is a gentleman and sets out to prove it.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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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.
The author
Daniel Defoe
1660–1731 · English novelist and journalist
Daniel Defoe was an English trader, writer, and journalist. He was born in London in 1660 and died there in 1731. He wrote Robinson Crusoe and The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe in 1719. Moll Flanders, A Journal of the Plague Year, and Colonel Jack appeared in 1722.
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