DANIEL DEFOE This page intentionally left blank Daniel Defoe AMBITION & INNOVATION Paula R. Backscheider THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Portionsofchapter4appearedearlieras"Cross-Purposes:Defoe'sHistoryof the Union" in CLIO 11 (1982), and are reprinted by permission of the publisher. Portionsofchapter7firstappearedas"TheGenesisofRoxana" in The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 27 (1986) and are reprinted by permission of the publisher. An earlier version of part of chapter 8 appeared as "Defoe and the Geography of the Mind" in J.M. Armistead, ed., The First English Novelists, copyright © 1985 by The UniversityofTennesseePress,andisreprintedbypermissionofthepublisher. Copyright © 1986byTheUniversity PressofKentucky Scholarlypublisherfor the Commonwealth, servingBellarmineCollege, BereaCollege, Centre CollegeofKentucky, Eastern KentuckyUniversity, TheFilson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky HistoricalSociety, KentuckyStateUniversity, MoreheadStateUniversity, MurrayStateUniversity, Northern KentuckyUniversity,Transylvania University, UniversityofKentucky, UniversityofLouisville, andWestern KentuckyUniversity. EditorialandSales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky40506-0024 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Backscheider, Paula. DanielDefoe: ambitionandinnovation. Bibliography: p. Includesindex. 1. Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731-Criticismand interpretation. I. Title. PR3407.B33 1987 823'.5 86-12076 ISBN978-0-8131-5084-0 TO MY SISTER Gayle This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix 1. THE BENT AND GENIUS OF THE AGE 3 2. POETRY 12 3. PAMPHLETS AND POLITICS 42 4. THE HISTORIES 70 5. THE HISTORICAL NOVELS 120 6. CRIME AND ADVENTURE 152 7. ROXANA 182 8. MELTED DOWN, FILLED WITH WONDERS 215 NOTES 241 BIBLIOGRAPHY 267 INDEX 289 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I SHALL ALWAYS think of this book with pleasure because of the generous support of my colleagues. They shared their knowl edge ofthe literature of other periods, listened to my enthusiasms and speculations, and read pages or chapters with alert, critical eyes. With affection, I offer thanks to Lewis White Beck, George Ford, Tom Gavin, Thomas Hahn, Tanya Page, and Joseph Sum mers. My debts to my husband, Nick Backscheider, to Marjorie Curry Woods, to J. Paul Hunter, and to my graduate assistant, Mary Ellen Potts, are particularly great. I am also grateful to friends from other universities who have answered questions, read chapters, and made helpful suggestions: Margaret Doody, J.A. Downie, Frank Ellis, and Louis A. Landa. Finally, lowe deep thanks to Maximillian E. Novak; at a time when I was ready to turn away from Defoe, he shared a world of enthusiasm. The writing of this book was supported by the University of Rochester, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Endowment for the Humanities; their grants and the extraordi nary work of University of Rochester librarians Phyllis Andrews and Shirley Ricker helped make my work pleasant and efficient. I thank Sir John Clerk, the Massachusetts Historical Society, Harvard's Houghton Library, the Dr. Williams Library, the University of Edinburgh, the Scottish Record Office (S.R.O.), and the National Library ofScotland for permission to publish manu script material. I also thank CLIO, The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation, and the University of Tennessee Press for permission to reprint previously published and earlierversions of parts of this book. ix