Author's reflections on the "tale of adventure" in the 18th century, with particular emphasis on the Defoe classic; extensively annotated. "De la Mare's anthologies should be numbered among his creative works; for in them the quoted passages are woven together on a web of imaginative comment as highly wrought and as often as long as the quotations themselves; so that the whole emerges less as a collection of other men's writings than an expression of the thoughts aroused in the anthologists by these writings, and coloured by the mood in which he read them. These anthologies represent a new literary form invented by Mr de la Mare, which he has employed as yet another mode to express his unique vision of reality." - Lord David Cecil. Publisher's 'Review Copy' leaflet loosely inserted.