Daniel Defoe - Softcover

Minto, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1544610416 ISBN 13: 9781544610412

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017

Synopsis

There are three considerable biographies of Defoe—the first, by George Chalmers, published in 1786; the second by Walter Wilson, published in 1830; the third, by William Lee, published in 1869. All three are thorough and painstaking works, justified by independent research and discovery. The labour of research in the case of an author supposed to have written some two hundred and fifty separate books and pamphlets, very few of them under his own name, is naturally enormous; and when it is done, the results are open to endless dispute. Probably two men could not be found who would read through the vast mass of contemporary anonymous and pseudonymous print, and agree upon a complete list of Defoe's writings. Fortunately, however, for those who wish to get a clear idea of his life and character, the identification is not pure guess-work on internal evidence. He put his own name or initials to some of his productions, and treated the authorship of others as open secrets. Enough is ascertained as his to provide us with the means for a complete understanding of his opinions and his conduct. It is Defoe's misfortune that his biographers on the large scale have occupied themselves too much with subordinate details, and have been misled from a true appreciation of his main lines of thought and action by religious, political, and hero-worshipping bias. For the following sketch, taking Mr. Lee's elaborate work as my chronological guide, I have read such of Defoe's undoubted writings as are accessible in the Library of the British Museum—there is no complete collection, I believe, in existence—and endeavoured to connect them and him with the history of the time.

About this title

Book Description:

Published in 1879, Minto's biography of Defoe (c. 1659-1731) represents an achievement in literary scholarship as well as a portrait of a colourful polemicist. Spanning Defoe's life from the passions of his youth to his 'later journalistic labours', this account upholds his image as an outspoken and influential writer.

About the Author:

William Minto (born October 10, 1845, died March 1, 1893), a Scottish man of letters, was born at Auchintoul, Aberdeenshire. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen, and spent a year at Merton College, Oxford. He was assistant professor under Alexander Bain at Aberdeen for some years; from 1874 to 1878 he edited the Examiner, and in 1880 he was made full professor of logic and English at Aberdeen. In 1872 he published a Manual of English Prose Literature, which was distinguished by sound judgment and sympathetic appreciation; and his Characteristics of English Poets from Chaucer to Shirley (1874) showed the same high qualities. His other works include: The Literature of the Georgian Era (1894) edited with a biographical introduction by W Knight Logic: Inductive and Deductive (1893) a monograph on Defoe in the "English Men of Letters" series (1879) three novels of small importance numerous articles on literary subjects in the 9th edition of the Encyclopędia Britannica. He had two sons, William and Charles. The elder died during celebrations to mark the end of the First World War when a shell misfired.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1544610416
• ISBN 13: 9781544610412
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128