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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...

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

Reviews

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.

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

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

About

Book Details

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

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.