The Bi-sexuality of Daniel Defoe: A Psychoanalytic Survey of the Man and His Works

by Leo Abse

Overview

This book presents an intriguing and novel Freudian overview of all Daniel Defoe's major works by confronting various psychoanalytic hypotheses regarding Defoe. It is an original, well-documented, and compelling cross-disciplinary approach to identity issues and creative genius of Defoe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367327545
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/05/2019
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.81(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

The genius of Daniel Defoe -- The Historical Collections -- The negative Oedipus complex -- The thrills of risk-taking -- Cannibalism -- The plague: defying Thanatos -- The storm -- The voyeur -- The spy -- Coprophilia and creativity -- Captain Singleton: the ablation of Alice Defoe -- The birth traumas of Sheppard, Wild and Defoe -- The preacher -- The feminist -- Crusoe's island -- Moll Flanders -- Roxana -- Apocalypse: The Political History of the Devil -- Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

"Leo Abse, perhaps the most humane and significant back-bench MP from any political party in the twentieth century, civilised Britain by forcing through a series of historical changes on the laws on homosexuality and divorce....now, ever indefatigable, his latest book gives a new dimension to the understanding of Defoe. Abse shows how Defoe transcended his private agonies to become a great public man."

Peter Oborne

"With wit, insight and erudition, Leo Abse illuminates hidden corners of the too-often overlooked Defoe, and casts a contemporary eye on Defoe's prodigious achievement, not least his bold eighteenth-century view of marriage as licensed whoredom. A riveting read."

Brenda Maddox

"This book presents its subject in an entirely fresh light, making it an exhilarating and enthralling read. I was gripped from beginning to end."

Anthony Howard

"Leo Abse is always brave, always perceptive and usually right: doubters will be wise to hesitate before pronouncing; over the last half-century, time has been in the habit of vindicating his judgement."

Matthew Paris

"Don't miss Leo Abse's Daniel Defoe. He's as original as Defoe himself."

Michael Foot

"Leo Abse's Psychoanalytic Survey of the Man and his Works makes startling claims about Defoe's sexuality, and the effect is occasionally at least provocative. For Abse, Defoe's writing are the main evidence for his bisexuality, which reamins, as far as I can tell, deep in his unconscious rather than in any part of his overt behavior."

Eighteenth-Century Fiction

"Leo Abse's Psychoanalytic Survey of the Man and his Works makes startling claims about Defoe's sexuality, and the effect is occasionally at least provocative. For Abse, Defoe's writing are the main evidence for his bisexuality, which reamins, as far as I can tell, deep in his unconscious rather than in any part of his overt behavior."

"Don't miss Leo Abse's Daniel Defoe. He's as original as Defoe himself."

"Leo Abse is always brave, always perceptive and usually right: doubters will be wise to hesitate before pronouncing; over the last half-century, time has been in the habit of vindicating his judgement."

"This book presents its subject in an entirely fresh light, making it an exhilarating and enthralling read. I was gripped from beginning to end."

"With wit, insight and erudition, Leo Abse illuminates hidden corners of the too-often overlooked Defoe, and casts a contemporary eye on Defoe's prodigious achievement, not least his bold eighteenth-century view of marriage as licensed whoredom. A riveting read."

"Leo Abse, perhaps the most humane and significant back-bench MP from any political party in the twentieth century, civilised Britain by forcing through a series of historical changes on the laws on homosexuality and divorce....now, ever indefatigable, his latest book gives a new dimension to the understanding of Defoe. Abse shows how Defoe transcended his private agonies to become a great public man."

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