Defoe's Tour and Early Modern Britain

A major work of scholarship by one of our most eminent and erudite authorities on eighteenth-century literature. Defoe's Tour and Early Modern Britain displays Pat Rogers's unparalleled knowledge of Defoe and his world. Nobody else could have written this book. It is the result of a lifetime of research, an enthusiastic celebration of Defoe's singular achievement in writing A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain. There is something surprising and edifying to learn on every page, for novice and expert readers alike. It will remain a landmark in Defoe scholarship for years to come. Joseph Hone, Newcastle University
In a career spanning over fifty years, Pat Rogers has produced a body of scholarship of lasting value, erudite, historically informed, and, above all, well-written. Defoe's Tour and Early Modern Britain adds a distinguished chapter to this long history of scholarly excellence. This is Rogers at his best, analysing historical and textual evidence with elegance and wit. Approaching the Tour from various points of interest, Rogers gives us the definitive critical account of Defoe's topographical masterpiece for our time as we mark the tercentenary of its publication. Albert Rivero, Marquette University
'… an important book by a major scholar …' Jeremy Black, The New Criterion
'A richly historicized and compellingly written account of Tour's literary-historical significance. … Rogers has created a compendium of resources - remarkable in its breadth and depth of contextual and intertextual material - that will prove invaluable to literary and historical scholars of Tour, Defoe, and Great Britain itself.' Bethany Williamson, The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cat