The Life of Daniel Defoe: A Critical Biography / Edition 1

by John Richetti

Overview

The Life of Daniel Defoe examines the entire range of Defoe’s writing in the context of what is known about his life and opinions.

• Features extended and detailed commentaries on Defoe’s political, religious, moral, and economic journalism, as well as on all of his narrative fictions, including Robinson Crusoe
• Places emphasis on Defoe’s distinctive style and rhetoric
• Situates his work within the precise historical circumstances of the eighteenth-century in which Defoe was an important and active participant
• Now available in paperback

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780631195290
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	12/30/2005
Series:	Wiley Blackwell Critical Biographies
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.35(h) x 1.15(d)

About the Author

John Richetti is A.M. Rosenthal Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He has written extensively on the eighteenth-century English novel and eighteenth-century philosophical prose, including The English Novel in History: 1700–1780 (1999), Philosophical Writing: Locke, Berkeley, Hume (1983), and Defoe’s Narratives (1975). He has edited Robinson Crusoe, among other titles.

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Table of Contents

Preface vi

Acknowledgments x

1 Dissenter, Merchant, Speculator,Writer 1

2 Early Writings 1697–1703: Projects, Dissent, Poems 31

3 Political Journalism: 1697–1710 70

4 Political Agent and Journalist: Queen Anne to the Hanoverians 113

5 Moral, Social, and Economic Writings 1714–31 143

6 Robinson Crusoe 174

7 Travel, Politics, and Adventure 213

8 Crime and Narrative 234

9 Roxana: A Novel of Crime and Punishment 268

10 History, Facts, and Literature 301

11 Political Journalist and Moral Censor: 1715–31 337

Notes 362

Bibliography 390

Index 395

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Richetti conscientiously explains the political controversies that possessed Defoe … When he reaches his chapters on Defoe’s novels you get the eloquent condensation of his expertise."—London Review of Books

“Richetti reminds us why so many of Defoe’s works are still worth reading … [The Life of Daniel Defoe] is a welcome addition to the family of biographies trying to render three-dimensional the man behind so many voices.”—Studies In English Literature 1500-1900

"Richetti does a remarkable job."—18th-Century Studies

"Richetti's contributions to the study of 18th century fiction have established him among the foremost critics…he has been brilliant in his treatment of Defoe."—1650-1850 Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

“Richetti] brings us closer than any previous biographer to the personality that ‘must have been lurking somewhere behind the various voices that he projected’ over forty years of writing. This is an urbane, well informed, and interesting account, not only of Defoe but of the entire Defoe enterprise.”—Scriblerian

Editorial Reviews

Richetti reminds us why so many of Defoe’s works are still worth reading … [The Life of Daniel Defoe] is a welcome addition to the family of biographies trying to render three-dimensional the man behind so many voices.”
Studies In English Literature 1500-1900

"Richetti does a remarkable job."
18th-Century Studies

"Richetti's contributions to the study of 18th century fiction have established him among the foremost critics…he has been brilliant in his treatment of Defoe."
1650-1850 Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

"Richetti conscientiously explains the political controversies that possessed Defoe … When he reaches his chapters on Defoe’s novels you get the eloquent condensation of his expertise."
London Review of Books

“[Richetti] brings us closer than any previous biographer to the personality that ‘must have been lurking somewhere behind the various voices that he projected’ over forty years of writing. This is an urbane, well informed, and interesting account, not only of Defoe but of the entire Defoe enterprise.” Scriblerian

From the Publisher