The Life of Daniel Defoe.

Wright, T.

Published by Cassell and Company Ltd., London, first edition, 1894, 1894

About this Item

Cloth, gilt cover-device, 8vo, 23 cm, xxxi, 432 pp, ills, [16] pp publisher's catalogue at end. From the preface - " With the personality of no eminent man of letters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is the public less familiar than with that of Daniel Defoe. 'Robinson Crusoe' has been read to tatters, 'The Shortest Way' even has been taken down and dusted; but of the man who wrote them the great world knows nothing, except, perhaps, that he had a hooked nose and was put in the pillory. Biographers have been so occupied in gathering together facts concerning his writings, especially those of the obscurer kind, and in trying to discover fresh writings, and have devoted so much space to the consideration of his position as a politician, that the man himself and his inner life have been almost entirely lost sight of Defoe, to quote Heine's phrase, was a brave soldier in the war of humanity, but he was also an extremely interesting personality, and it is partly in order to reveal the secrets of the mine neglected by my predecessors that this work has been undertaken; and I use the word 'neglected' advisedly, for though, thanks to the kindness .of friends, I have had placed in my hands a great mass of material with the existence of which my predecessors were unacquainted, nevertheless, it is owing quite as much to a careful study of Defoe's works, and especially his novels, as it is to the new material, that I am able to present, as I trust I do present, not a mythical figure hardly discernible behind a pile of half-forgotten pamphlets, but a man of flesh and blood - the hero, Defoe. " Covers variably faded, otherwise Good and partly unopened. Seller Inventory # ABE-49181

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Life of Daniel Defoe.

Publisher: Cassell and Company Ltd., London, first edition, 1894

Publication Date: 1894

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition