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Cover image of Daniel Defoe
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Daniel Defoe

His Life

Paul Backscheider
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Throughout one of English history's most tumultuous periods, Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) took part in and reported on nearly every major political, religious, and social controversy. This widely acclaimed biography offers a fascinating account of Defoe's remarkable life. Paula Backscheider reveals new information about Defoe's secret career as a double agent, his daring business ventures, his dangerous pen—and his cat-and-mouse games with those who sought to control it. This is the definitive biography of one of eighteenth-century England's most influential figures—and one of the most prolific...

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Throughout one of English history's most tumultuous periods, Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) took part in and reported on nearly every major political, religious, and social controversy. This widely acclaimed biography offers a fascinating account of Defoe's remarkable life. Paula Backscheider reveals new information about Defoe's secret career as a double agent, his daring business ventures, his dangerous pen—and his cat-and-mouse games with those who sought to control it. This is the definitive biography of one of eighteenth-century England's most influential figures—and one of the most prolific and widely read authors of all time

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Reviews

For the first time everything we know about Defoe is presented in a single orderly sequence..A searching study of a complex man, one that is coherent and credible for our times.

— New York Times Book Review

A very considerable work of scholarship, and the first to give this prolific writer the extended treatment he after all deserves.

— Washington Post Book World

Paula Backscheider spins this absorbing narrative with meticulous scholarship and lucidity.

— Independent on Sunday
About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
688
ISBN
9780801845123
DOI
Illustration Description
26 b&w illus.
Subject
Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Part I: 1660-1703
Chapter 1. Fire and Plague
Chapter 2.Merchant-Rebel
Chapter 3. Bankrupt
Chapter 4. Recovery
Chapter 5. Fugitive
Chapter 6. Prison
Part II

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List of Illustrations
Preface
Part I: 1660-1703
Chapter 1. Fire and Plague
Chapter 2.Merchant-Rebel
Chapter 3. Bankrupt
Chapter 4. Recovery
Chapter 5. Fugitive
Chapter 6. Prison
Part II: 1703-1714
Chapter 7. Four Hundred Thousand Words
Chapter 8. The Literary Effort of a Lifetime
Chapter 9. New Life
Chapter 10. A terrible People
Chapter 11. Political Maelstrom
Chapter 12. The Goliath of the Party
Chapter 13. A Team of Writers
Part III: 1714-1731
Chapter 14. Six Hundred Thousand Words
Chapter 15. A Discontented People
Chapter 16. A Penetrating Eye
Chapter 17. The Whole World in Motion
Chapter 18. Projects and Designs
Chapter 19. Changes and Disasters
Epilogue: Bred in the Bone
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Author Bio
Paula R. Backscheider
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Paula R. Backscheider

Paula R. Backscheider is the Philpott-Stevens Eminent Scholar in the Department of English at Auburn University. She is the author of several books, including Daniel Defoe: His Life, Spectacular Politics: Theatrical Power and Mass Culture in Early Modern England, and Reflections on Biography, and editor of Revising Women: Eighteenth-Century "Women's Fiction" and Social Engagement.

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