Sir Edward Seaward’s Narrative of his Shipwreck, and Consequent Discovery of Certain Islands in the Caribbean Sea…

1831

Private Collection

London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green

Sir Edward Seaward’s Narrative was a surprise success in 1831. Jane Porter claimed that this Crusoe-style tale was based on an actual, eighteenth-century manuscript lent to her by a friend of the family. Early reviewers assumed that Jane was the actual author and praised her knowledge of the Caribbean. In fact, it was the work of her elder brother, the Bristol doctor William Ogilvie Porter (1774-1850), who had spent part of his youth working in the West Indies.