Selected Writings of Daniel Defoe

by Edited by James T. Boulton

• ISBN13: 9780521099318
• ISBN10: 0521099315
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1975-05-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Paradoxically, Daniel Defoe is diminished by his popularity as the author of a handful of important novels, since the remainder of his voluminous writings suffer undue neglect. Fully to understand him he should be taken whole but his authorship of over 500 publications renders this feat well nigh impossible. The purpose of this selection, then, is to enable the reader to make or renew the acquaintance of Defoe on some of his favourite topics such as trade and politics, manners and morality, in poetry as well as prose, and in works like A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs Veal and Memoirs of a Cavalier, which are characteristic blends of fact and fiction. Equipped with the insights possible from this sample, the reader - it is hoped - will return to the major novels with a keener appreciation of their distinctive quality and a livelier sense of their author.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgment

Note on the text

Defoe's life: a chronological survey

Introduction

The Selections: from An Essay Upon Projects

An Argument Shewing, That a Standing Army...

From The True-Born Englishman

From Legion's Memorial

The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters

From A Hymn to the Pillory

Letter to Robert Harley

From A Review

A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs Veal

Letters to Robert Harley

And What if the Pretender Should Come?

An Appeal to Honour and Justice

From The Family Instructor

Letter to Charles de la Faye

From Memoirs of a Cavalier

From The Complete English Tradesman

From The History of the Pyrates: of Captain Bellamy

From The Compleat English Gentleman

Letter to Henry Baker

Notes

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