The Algerine Captive: or, The Life and Adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill

Royall Tyler

Random House Publishing Group, Dec 18, 2007 - Fiction - 304 pages

A predecessor of both the nativist humor of Mark Twain and the exotic adventure stories of Washington Irving, Herman Melville, and Richard Dana, Royall Tyler’s The Algerine Captive is an entertaining romp through eighteenth-century society, a satiric look at a variety of American types, from the backwoods schoolmaster to the southern gentleman, and a serious exposé of the horrors of the slave trade. “In stylistic purity and the clarity with which Tyler investigates and dramatizes American manners,” the critic Jack B. Moore has noted, The Algerine Captive “stands alone in our earliest fiction.” It is also one of the first attempts by an American novelist to depict the Islamic world, and lays bare a culture clash and diplomatic quagmire not unlike the one that obtains between the United States and Muslim nations today.

Contents

• DEDICATION: 3
• The Author giveth an Account of his gallant Ancestor Captain: 11
• Captain Underbill seeks Shelter in Dover in New Hampshire: 20
• The Anticipations: 30
• The Author commences the Study of Physic with a celebrated: 37
• Anecdotes of the celebrated Doctor Moyes: 43
• The Author in imminent Danger of bis Life in a Duel: 53
• The Author panegyrizes bis Preceptor: 59
• Disappointed in the North the Author seeketh Treasure: 74
• He is: 82
• Curious Argument between Thomas Paine and the noted: 89
• Treatment of the Slaves on board the Ship: 97
• The Author taken Captive by the Algerines: 103
• Is brought before the: 111
• The Slave Market: 115
• The Author Dreameth whilst Awake: 118
• description of his House Wife Country House and severe Treatment of bis Slaves: 121
• The Author is encountered by a Renegada Struggles between Faith the World the Flesh and the Devil: 125
• The Mortifications and Austerities of the Mahometan Recluse The Musculman mode of Proselyting: 128
• Defendeth the Verity of the Cbristian Creed and resigns bis Body to Slavery to preserve the Freedom of his Mind: 131
• The Language of the Algerines: 137
• The Author plans an Escape: 139
• The Author present at a Public Spectacle: 142
• The Author feels that he is indeed a Slave: 144
• The Infirmary: 146
• The Authors Practice as a Surgeon and Physician in the City of Algiers: 148
• Visits a sick Lady: 151
• Sketch of the History of the Algerines: 154
• 30: 161
• Description of the City of Algiers: 163
• The Government of the Algerines: 165
• Revenue: 167
• The Deys Forces: 169
• Notices of the Habits Customs c of the Algerines: 171
• Marriages and Funerals: 173
• Life of the Prophet Mabowet: 176
• The Sects of Omar and Ali: 180
• The Faith of the Algerines: 182
• Why do not the Powers in Europe suppress the Algerie Depredations? is a Question frequently asked in the United States: 184
• An Algerine Law Suit: 188
• A Mahometan Sermon: 191
• Of the Jews: 194
• The Arrival of other American Captives: 197
• The Author commences Acquaintance with Adonah Ben Benjamin a Jew: 200
• The Author by Permission of his Master travels to Medina the burial Place of the Propbet Mabomet: 206
• The Author is blessed with the Sight and Touch of a most boly Mabowetan Saint: 212
• Description of the Prophets Tomb and principal Mosque: 214
• Description of the Al Kaaba or House of God: 216
• Finds Adonahs Son sick His Contrition Is restored to Health: 218
• The Gratitude of a Jew: 220
• Conclusion: 224
• 55: 227

About the author

Caleb Crain is the author of American Sympathy: Men, Friendship, and Literature in the New Nation. He lives in Brooklyn.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Algerine Captive: or, The Life and Adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill; Modern Library Classics
• Author: Royall Tyler
• Contributor: Caleb Crain
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2007
• ISBN: 0307431924, 9780307431929
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Satire