Daniel Defoe in Context

Innovative in its structure and approach, Daniel Defoe in Context contains 42 essays by leading scholars illuminating the life, times, and world of Daniel Defoe. Defoe is one of the most important literary figures in English history, thanks not only to his pioneering novels Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, but also to his notable works in journalism, travel writing, conduct literature, and verse, both satiric and serious. Written with general readers and students in mind, the essays in this volume provide up-to-date knowledge about eighteenth-century literature, culture, and history in a high quality, clearly written, but completely accessible form. Together they demonstrate the ways not only in which Defoe's world shaped his writing, but also in which Defoe's writings profoundly affected his world, and therefore our world.

Albert J. Rivero is the Louise Edna Goeden Professor of English at Marquette University. A Fulbright scholar, he has held fellowships from the ACLS, APS, Clark Library, Newberry Library, and NEH. He has edited Samuel Richardson's Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded and Pamela in Her Exalted Condition for Cambridge University Press. George Justice is Provost and Professor of English at the University of Tulsa. He has published widely on eighteenth-century British literature, particularly in the areas of book history and women's writing, and is currently completing a critical biography of Jane Austen.