Memoirs of a Cavalier

Daniel Defoe’s great talent as a writer was to speak in the voices of others. Such was the authenticity of this memoir of a 17th-century soldier of fortune that for over half a century it was considered to be genuine. The struggle of the narrator to turn his observations into facts and to make certain history out of his uncertain experiences combines with vivid descriptions of the battles of the Civil War to give the narrative its dramatic qualities.