author
Richard Head
A lively, rough-edged voice from the 17th century, remembered for helping shape the English rogue story. His work mixes satire, adventure, and the restless energy of early popular fiction.
4 Audiobooks
The English Rogue: Continued in the Life of Meriton Latroon, and Other Extravagants: The Fourth Part
by Richard Head, Francis Kirkman
The English Rogue: Continued in the Life of Meriton Latroon, and Other Extravagants, Comprehending the most Eminent Cheats of Both Sexes: The Third Part
by Richard Head, Francis Kirkman
The English Rogue: Continued in the Life of Meriton Latroon, and Other Extravagants: The Second Part
by Richard Head, Francis Kirkman
The English Rogue: Described in the Life of Meriton Latroon, a Witty Extravagant
by Richard Head, Francis Kirkman
About the author
Born around 1637 in Ireland, probably near Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Richard Head later lived and worked in England as an author, playwright, and bookseller. Accounts of his life agree that his family was uprooted during the violence of the 1640s, and that he went on to build a precarious literary career in London.
Head is best known for The English Rogue (1665), the book that made his name and became one of the early English works to reach readers in translation on the continent. He also wrote or was associated with other lively, streetwise works, including The Canting Academy and The Floating Island, blending satire, criminal biography, and picaresque storytelling.
What makes Head interesting now is how close his writing feels to the bustling print world of his time: commercial, comic, and full of swagger. Even when details of his life are uncertain, his books still offer a vivid glimpse of 17th-century popular literature and the early growth of the English novel.