Abducted as a child and forced to sea at the age of 12, Bob Singleton loses the fortune he made crossing Africa on foot, only to make a greater one as a pirate, before his realisation that he is `a Thief, a Pirate, a Murtherer, and ought to be hanged' sets him on the road to salvation in the company of one of Defoe's most memorable characters, William the Quaker. At once an adventure story, travel narrative, and view of eighteenth century society through the eyes of one of its outcasts, Captain Singleton is no longer considered one of Defoe's minor works, but an outstanding novel of ideas.