Daniel Defoe in Context

Provides comprehensive contexts for Defoe's voluminous fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in short, readable essays by leading scholars.

Daniel Defoe established the genre of the novel with Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe. He also wrote pioneering works of non-fiction and verse. This collection of short, accessible essays by leading scholars helps students and general readers understand Defoe's writing and the vibrant culture in which he lived.Innovative in its structure and approach, Daniel Defoe in Context contains 42 essays by leading scholars illuminating the life, times, and world of Daniel Defoe. Defoe is one of the most important literary figures in English history, thanks not only to his pioneering novels Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, but also to his notable works in journalism, travel writing, conduct literature, and verse, both satiric and serious. Written with general readers and students in mind, the essays in this volume provide up-to-date knowledge about eighteenth-century literature, culture, and history in a high quality, clearly written, but completely accessible form. Together they demonstrate the ways not only in which Defoe's world shaped his writing, but also in which Defoe's writings profoundly affected his world, and therefore our world.