The Life of Daniel Defoe: A Critical Biography(7 Wiley Blackwell Critical Biographies)

The Life of Daniel Defoe examines the entire range of Defoe’s writing in the context of what is known about his life and opinions. Features extended and detailed commentaries on Defoe’s political, religious, moral, and economic journalism, as well as on all of his narrative fictions, including Robinson Crusoe Places emphasis on Defoe’s distinctive style and rhetoric Situates his work within the precise historical circumstances of the eighteenth-century in which Defoe was an important and active participant Now available in paperback  

Table of Contents:
Preface vi Acknowledgments x 1 Dissenter, Merchant, Speculator,Writer 1 2 Early Writings 1697–1703: Projects, Dissent, Poems 31 3 Political Journalism: 1697–1710 70 4 Political Agent and Journalist: Queen Anne to the Hanoverians 113 5 Moral, Social, and Economic Writings 1714–31 143 6 Robinson Crusoe 174 7 Travel, Politics, and Adventure 213 8 Crime and Narrative 234 9 Roxana: A Novel of Crime and Punishment 268 10 History, Facts, and Literature 301 11 Political Journalist and Moral Censor: 1715–31 337 Notes 362 Bibliography 390 Index 395

About the Author :
John Richetti is A.M. Rosenthal Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He has written extensively on the eighteenth-century English novel and eighteenth-century philosophical prose, including The English Novel in History: 1700–1780 (1999), Philosophical Writing: Locke, Berkeley, Hume (1983), Defoe’s Narratives (1975), and Popular Fiction Before Richardson: Narrative Patterns 1700-1739 (1969). He has edited Robinson Crusoe (2003), among other titles.

Review :
“Richetti reminds us why so many of Defoe’s works are still worth reading … [The Life of Daniel Defoe] is a welcome addition to the family of biographies trying to render three-dimensional the man behind so many voices.” Studies In English Literature 1500-1900 "Richetti does a remarkable job." 18th-Century Studies "Richetti's contributions to the study of 18th century fiction have established him among the foremost critics…he has been brilliant in his treatment of Defoe." 1650-1850 Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era "Richetti conscientiously explains the political controversies that possessed Defoe … When he reaches his chapters on Defoe’s novels you get the eloquent condensation of his expertise." London Review of Books “[Richetti] brings us closer than any previous biographer to the personality that ‘must have been lurking somewhere behind the various voices that he projected’ over forty years of writing. This is an urbane, well informed, and interesting account, not only of Defoe but of the entire Defoe enterprise.” Scriblerian