Author: Michael B. Prince
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813943663
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436
Book Description
A scholarly and imaginative reconstruction of the voyage Daniel Defoe took from the pillory to literary immortality, The Shortest Way with Defoe contends that Robinson Crusoe contains a secret satire, written against one person, that has gone undetected for 300 years. By locating Defoe's nemesis and discovering what he represented and how Defoe fought him, Michael Prince's book opens the way to a new account of Defoe's emergence as a novelist. The book begins with Defoe’s conviction for seditious libel for penning a pamphlet called The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702). A question of biography segues into questions of theology and intellectual history and of formal analysis; these questions in turn require close attention to the early reception of Defoe's works, especially by those who hated or suspected him. Prince aims to recover the way of reading Defoe that his enemies considered accurate. Thus, the book rethinks the positions represented in Defoe's ambiguous alternation and mimicking of narrative and editorial voices in his tracts, proto-novels, and novels. By examining Defoe's early publications alongside Robinson Crusoe, Prince shows that Defoe traveled through nonrealist, nonhistorical genres on the way to discovering the form of prose fiction we now call the novel. Moreover, a climate (or figure) of extreme religious intolerance and political persecution required Defoe always to seek refuge in literary disguise. And, religious convictions aside, Defoe's practice as a writer found him inhabiting forms known for their covert deism.
The Shortest Way with Defoe
Author: Michael B. Prince
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813943663
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436
Book Description
A scholarly and imaginative reconstruction of the voyage Daniel Defoe took from the pillory to literary immortality, The Shortest Way with Defoe contends that Robinson Crusoe contains a secret satire, written against one person, that has gone undetected for 300 years. By locating Defoe's nemesis and discovering what he represented and how Defoe fought him, Michael Prince's book opens the way to a new account of Defoe's emergence as a novelist. The book begins with Defoe’s conviction for seditious libel for penning a pamphlet called The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702). A question of biography segues into questions of theology and intellectual history and of formal analysis; these questions in turn require close attention to the early reception of Defoe's works, especially by those who hated or suspected him. Prince aims to recover the way of reading Defoe that his enemies considered accurate. Thus, the book rethinks the positions represented in Defoe's ambiguous alternation and mimicking of narrative and editorial voices in his tracts, proto-novels, and novels. By examining Defoe's early publications alongside Robinson Crusoe, Prince shows that Defoe traveled through nonrealist, nonhistorical genres on the way to discovering the form of prose fiction we now call the novel. Moreover, a climate (or figure) of extreme religious intolerance and political persecution required Defoe always to seek refuge in literary disguise. And, religious convictions aside, Defoe's practice as a writer found him inhabiting forms known for their covert deism.
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813943663
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436
Book Description
A scholarly and imaginative reconstruction of the voyage Daniel Defoe took from the pillory to literary immortality, The Shortest Way with Defoe contends that Robinson Crusoe contains a secret satire, written against one person, that has gone undetected for 300 years. By locating Defoe's nemesis and discovering what he represented and how Defoe fought him, Michael Prince's book opens the way to a new account of Defoe's emergence as a novelist. The book begins with Defoe’s conviction for seditious libel for penning a pamphlet called The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702). A question of biography segues into questions of theology and intellectual history and of formal analysis; these questions in turn require close attention to the early reception of Defoe's works, especially by those who hated or suspected him. Prince aims to recover the way of reading Defoe that his enemies considered accurate. Thus, the book rethinks the positions represented in Defoe's ambiguous alternation and mimicking of narrative and editorial voices in his tracts, proto-novels, and novels. By examining Defoe's early publications alongside Robinson Crusoe, Prince shows that Defoe traveled through nonrealist, nonhistorical genres on the way to discovering the form of prose fiction we now call the novel. Moreover, a climate (or figure) of extreme religious intolerance and political persecution required Defoe always to seek refuge in literary disguise. And, religious convictions aside, Defoe's practice as a writer found him inhabiting forms known for their covert deism.
A Concise Handbook of Ancient and Modern Literature
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anonymns and pseudonyms
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anonymns and pseudonyms
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
A Fictive People
Author: Ronald J. Zboray
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195344901
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349
Book Description
This book explores an important boundary between history and literature: the antebellum reading public for books written by Americans. Zboray describes how fiction took root in the United States and what literature contributed to the readers' sense of themselves. He traces the rise of fiction as a social history centered on the book trade and chronicles the large societal changes shaping, circumscribing, and sometimes defining the limits of the antebellum reading public. A Fictive People explodes two notions that are commonplace in cultural histories of the nineteenth century: first, that the spread of literature was a simple force for the democratization of taste, and, second, that there was a body of nineteenth-century literature that reflected a "nation of readers." Zboray shows that the output of the press was so diverse and the public so indiscriminate in what it would read that we must rethink these conclusions. The essential elements for the rise of publishing turn out not to be the usual suspects of rising literacy and increased schooling. Zboray turns our attention to the railroad as well as private letter writing to see the creation of a national taste for literature. He points out the ambiguous role of the nineteenth-century school in encouraging reading and convincingly demonstrates that we must look more deeply to see why the nation turned to literature. He uses such data as sales figures and library borrowing to reveal that women read as widely as men and that the regional breakdown of sales focused the power of print.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195344901
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349
Book Description
This book explores an important boundary between history and literature: the antebellum reading public for books written by Americans. Zboray describes how fiction took root in the United States and what literature contributed to the readers' sense of themselves. He traces the rise of fiction as a social history centered on the book trade and chronicles the large societal changes shaping, circumscribing, and sometimes defining the limits of the antebellum reading public. A Fictive People explodes two notions that are commonplace in cultural histories of the nineteenth century: first, that the spread of literature was a simple force for the democratization of taste, and, second, that there was a body of nineteenth-century literature that reflected a "nation of readers." Zboray shows that the output of the press was so diverse and the public so indiscriminate in what it would read that we must rethink these conclusions. The essential elements for the rise of publishing turn out not to be the usual suspects of rising literacy and increased schooling. Zboray turns our attention to the railroad as well as private letter writing to see the creation of a national taste for literature. He points out the ambiguous role of the nineteenth-century school in encouraging reading and convincingly demonstrates that we must look more deeply to see why the nation turned to literature. He uses such data as sales figures and library borrowing to reveal that women read as widely as men and that the regional breakdown of sales focused the power of print.
Transformations, Ideology, and the Real in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Other Narratives
Author: Maximillian E. Novak
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1611494869
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
This book explores significant problems in the fiction of Daniel Defoe. Maximillian E. Novak investigates a number of elements in Defoe’s work by probing his interest in rendering of reality (what Defoe called “the Thing itself”). Novak examines Defoe’s interest in the relationship between prose fiction and painting, as well as the various ways in which Defoe’s woks were read by contemporaries and by those novelists who attempted to imitate and comment upon his Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe decades after its publication. In this book, Novak attempts to consider the uniqueness and imaginativeness of various aspects of Defoe’s writings including his way of evoking the seeming inability of language to describe a vivid scene or moments of overwhelming emotion, his attraction to the fiction of islands and utopias, his gradual development of the concepts surrounding Crusoe’s cave, his fascination with the horrors of cannibalism, and some of the ways he attempted to defend his work and serious fiction in general. Most of all, Transformations, Ideology, and the Real in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Other Narratives establishes the complexity and originality of Defoe as a writer of fiction.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1611494869
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
This book explores significant problems in the fiction of Daniel Defoe. Maximillian E. Novak investigates a number of elements in Defoe’s work by probing his interest in rendering of reality (what Defoe called “the Thing itself”). Novak examines Defoe’s interest in the relationship between prose fiction and painting, as well as the various ways in which Defoe’s woks were read by contemporaries and by those novelists who attempted to imitate and comment upon his Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe decades after its publication. In this book, Novak attempts to consider the uniqueness and imaginativeness of various aspects of Defoe’s writings including his way of evoking the seeming inability of language to describe a vivid scene or moments of overwhelming emotion, his attraction to the fiction of islands and utopias, his gradual development of the concepts surrounding Crusoe’s cave, his fascination with the horrors of cannibalism, and some of the ways he attempted to defend his work and serious fiction in general. Most of all, Transformations, Ideology, and the Real in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Other Narratives establishes the complexity and originality of Defoe as a writer of fiction.
The Publishers Weekly
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 1140
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 1140
Book Description
Catalogue of the Library of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore ...
Author: Johns Hopkins University. Peabody Institute. Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dictionary catalogs
Languages : en
Pages : 856
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dictionary catalogs
Languages : en
Pages : 856
Book Description
The Secret History in Literature, 1660-1820
Author: Rebecca Bullard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107150469
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
This collection explores for the first time the importance of secret history in the literature of the long eighteenth century.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107150469
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
This collection explores for the first time the importance of secret history in the literature of the long eighteenth century.
Catalogue of the Library of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore ...
Author: George Peabody Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dictionary catalogs
Languages : en
Pages : 854
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dictionary catalogs
Languages : en
Pages : 854
Book Description
Novel Definitions
Author: Cheryl L. Nixon
Publisher: Broadview Press
ISBN: 1770482075
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 438
Book Description
Novel Definitions captures the lively critical debate surrounding the invention of the English novel, showing how the rise of the novel is accompanied by a rise in popular literary criticism. The over 135 pieces here, many newly-discovered, include essays, prefaces, reviews, and sermons written by authors ranging from Aphra Behn to Walter Scott. Novel Definitions brings together authors' commentary on their work; debates concerning the novel’s formal qualities and cultural position, including who should read novels; reviewers' definitions of the qualities that make a novel successful; and literary historians' first attempts to write the history of the novel.
Publisher: Broadview Press
ISBN: 1770482075
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 438
Book Description
Novel Definitions captures the lively critical debate surrounding the invention of the English novel, showing how the rise of the novel is accompanied by a rise in popular literary criticism. The over 135 pieces here, many newly-discovered, include essays, prefaces, reviews, and sermons written by authors ranging from Aphra Behn to Walter Scott. Novel Definitions brings together authors' commentary on their work; debates concerning the novel’s formal qualities and cultural position, including who should read novels; reviewers' definitions of the qualities that make a novel successful; and literary historians' first attempts to write the history of the novel.
The Politics of Disclosure, 1674-1725
Author: Rebecca Bullard
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131731414X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259
Book Description
This is a study of the 'secret history', a polemical form of historiography which flourished in England during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131731414X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259
Book Description
This is a study of the 'secret history', a polemical form of historiography which flourished in England during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.