{"product_id":"2026770001804-secondhand-the-history-and-remarkable-life-of-the-truly-honourable-colonel-jack","title":"The History And Remarkable Life Of The Truly Honourable Colonel Jack","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good                          \u003cbr\u003eJacket: Worn\/faded, no tears\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good                  \u003cbr\u003eMarkings: No markings\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA landmark work of early English fiction, The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Colonel Jack chronicles the turbulent journey of a London street urchin who rises from a life of petty crime and poverty to achieve wealth, respectability, and a measure of moral redemption. Defoe constructs his narrative with the same gritty realism and first-person immediacy that defined Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe, immersing readers in the criminal underworld of 18th-century England before transporting Jack across the Atlantic to the plantations of Virginia and the battlefields of Europe. The novel argues, with characteristic Puritan earnestness, that conscience and the capacity for self-improvement are never entirely extinguished by circumstance or sin, giving the story a moral weight that elevates it beyond mere adventure. Defoe's prose is direct and unsentimental, presenting Jack's repeated failures — including multiple disastrous marriages — with an ironic detachment that is as entertaining as it is instructive. A foundational text in the history of the novel, it remains a vivid and surprisingly modern portrait of ambition, guilt, and the relentless pursuit of social legitimacy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48839389544667,"sku":"2026770001804-SECONDHAND","price":15.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/dc54b24c-40b4-47e8-880c-2c82cf677682.png?v=1780561379","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026770001804-secondhand-the-history-and-remarkable-life-of-the-truly-honourable-colonel-jack","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}