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A DEFOE COMPANION

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A Defoe Com.panion J. R. Hammond!50th YEAR M Barnes & Noble Books

J. R. Hammond 1993 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1993 978-0-333-51328-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published in Great Britain 1993 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Hound mills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2.XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world This book is published in Macmillan's Literary Companions series A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-38924-7 ISBN 978-0-230-37470-6 (ebook) DOl 10.1007/ 9780230374706 First published in the United States of America 1993 by BARNES & NOBLE BOOKS 4720 Boston Way Lanham, MD 20706 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hammond, J. R. (John R.), 1933- A Defoe companion I J. R. Hammond. P em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-389-21006-1 1. Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731-Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. PR3407.H35 1993 823'.6-dc20 92-39387 CIP

Hail to thee, spirit of Defoe! What does not my own poor self owe to thee! England has better bards than either Greece or Rome, yet I could spare them easier far than Defoe. George Borrow, Lavengro

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Contents List of Plates Preface Author's Note PART I The Making of a Novelist Defoe's Literary Achievement A Defoe Dictionary Key to the Characters and Locations PART II The Shorter Fiction Robinson Crusoe Memoirs of a Cavalier Captain Singleton Moll Flanders A Journal of the Plague Year Colonel Jack Roxana A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain Appendix References Bibliography Index viii lx Xl 3 17 40 45 61 67 80 86 95 106 118 127 136 144 146 149 151 vii

List of Plates 1. Defoe in the pillory 2. Title-page of the first edition of Robinson Crusoe 3. Frontispiece to the first edition of Robinson Crusoe 4. London market scene, c. 1720 5. The handwriting of Defoe 6. The great plague of London For the provision of illustrations, and permission to reproduce them, grateful acknowledgements are made to: Hulton Picture Company (1); British Library (2, 3, 5); Kenneth Monkman (4); Welcome Institute Library, London (6). viii

Preface Daniel Defoe occupies a central place in the history of English literature. As the author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders he can claim with some justification to be the first English novelist and the father of the novel as we know it today. He was one of the earliest practitioners of the 'desert island' myth which has proved to be such a seminal influence on the human imagination. In A Journal of the Plague Year and A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain he forged a distinctive documentary style which deeply influenced later writers, including Poe, Stevenson, Wells and Orwell. This Companion aims to present Defoe afresh and to reappraise him from a late twentieth-century standpoint. An introductory chapter presents an overview of his life and times, tracing the forces which shaped him as man and writer. This is followed by a summary of his literary achievement, discussing in particular his pioneering approach to the novel and his strengths and weaknesses as a novelist of character. Each of the principal works is then examined in detail and placed in its literary and biographical context. The Companion also contains a dictionary of the characters and places that have a significant role in the novels, and a checklist of the film versions based on Defoe's works. In summarising his life and achievement and offering a critical overview of his contribution to the development of the novel the Companion seeks to reestablish Defoe as a pivotal figure in the history of literature. I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to a number of critical works which preceded mine, in particular to James Sutherland's excellent biography of Defoe, first published in 1937 and still unsuperseded, and his stimulating Daniel Defoe: A Critical Study. Pat Rogers's works have also been indispensable, especially his volume on Defoe in the Critical Heritage series and his admirable edition of the Tour with its full scholarly apparatus. Details of these and other relevant works will be found in the bibliography. My friend and historian Dr Michael Honeybone has read the draft of the opening chapter and commented helpfully upon it. Norman Page, Professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Nottingham, has been helpful and encouraging as always. I also wish to place on record my thanks to the staff of IX

X Preface the following libraries: British Library, London; University of Nottingham Library; National Newspaper Library, Colindale; Stoke Newington District Library (London Borough of Hackney). Finally I would like to record my warm appreciation to Joy Bremer for typing the manuscript with such care, and to my wife for her unfailing patience and understanding during the throes of composition. J. R. HAMMOND

Author's Note The text used for the extracts from Defoe's fiction is that of the World's Classics edition, published by Oxford University Press. Page references in these chapters are to this edition. Page references in the chapter on A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain are to the Penguin Classics edition. Publication details of these editions are given in the Bibliography. xi