A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain
$34.55
- Paperback
736 pages
- Release Date
25 August 2005
Summary
Britain in the early eighteenth century: an introduction that is both informative and imaginative, reliable and entertaining. To the tradition of travel writing Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime’s experience as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour (1724-6) is an invaluable source of social and economic history. But this book is far more than a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution, for Defoe possessed a wild, inventive streak that endows his work with astonishing energy and tension, and the Tour is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world. By employing his skills as a chronicler, a polemicist and a creative writer keenly sensitive to the depredations of time, Defoe more than achieves his aim of rendering ‘the present state’ of Britain.
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780140430660 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0140430660 |
| Author: | Daniel Defoe, Pat Rogers |
| Publisher: | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Imprint: | Penguin Classics |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 736 |
| Edition: | 1st |
| Release Date: | 25 August 2005 |
| Weight: | 531g |
| Dimensions: | 42mm x 129mm x 196mm |
| Series: | Penguin Classics |
You Can Find This Book In
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe (Author)
Daniel Defoe (c.1660-1731) was born in London, the son of James Foe, a butcher. He later changed his name to De Foe or Defoe around 1705. Defoe was interested in politics and opposed King James II. After the Glorious Revolution in 1688, he became a personal friend of William III. He worked as a writer for the government and a satirical commentator on contemporary social issues. He transitioned to full-time writing after being inspired by the story of a sailor shipwrecked alone on a desert island in the Pacific, which led to his first novel, Robinson Crusoe. Several other adventure stories followed, including Moll Flanders.
Pat Rogers (Introducer)
Pat Rogers is DeBartolo Professor in the Liberal Arts at the University of South Florida. He was educated at Cambridge, where he earned a double first in English, and later obtained a Ph.D. and Litt.D. He has held teaching positions at the universities of Cambridge, London, Wales, and Bristol. His published works include Grub Street (1972), The Augustan Vision (1974), Eighteenth-Century Encounters (1985), and Literature and Popular Culture in Eighteenth-Century England (1985), as well as studies on Swift, Pope, Defoe, Fielding, and Johnson. He is the editor of The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature (1987) and serves as advisory editor for The Blackwell Companion to the Enlightenment. He has also edited Joshua Reynolds’ Discourses and Jonathan Swift’s Selected Poems for Penguin Classics.
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.