A Vindication of the Press E-Book

Daniel Defoe

• Herausgeber: Krill Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Seitenzahl: 49

Beschreibung

Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731) was a prolific English writer who became one of the first Western writers to write novels and turn them into a sought after literary genre. During his life, Defoe wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets and journals on topics as wide ranging as politics, crime, religion, psychology, supernatural events, and even economics.

While those are all impressive accomplishments, Defoe’s name has lived on through Robinson Crusoe, one of the first and finest novels ever written. The book is written as a fictional autobiography of Robinson Crusoe, a castaway who spends nearly 30 years on a tropical island, where he encounters all kinds of danger and adventures. Published in the early 18th century, the novel may have been inspired by a real Scottish castaway, Alexander Selkirk, who lived for nearly 5 years on a Pacific Island. That island’s name has since been changed to Robinson Crusoe Island. Robinson Crusoe was a stark departure from the typical literature of the day, which was still based on ancient mythology, legends, and history.

Leseprobe

A VINDICATION OF THE PRESS

..................

Daniel Defoe

DOSSIER PRESS

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This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.

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Copyright © 2016 by Daniel Defoe

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

GENERAL EDITORS

ASSISTANT EDITOR

ADVISORY EDITORS

INTRODUCTION

FINIS.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

A Vindication of the Press

By

Daniel Defoe

A Vindication of the Press

Published by Dossier Press

New York City, NY

First published circa 1731

Copyright © Dossier Press, 2015

All rights reserved

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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GENERAL EDITORS

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H. RICHARD ARCHER, Clark Memorial Library

RICHARD C. BOYS, University of Michigan

EDWARD NILES HOOKER, University of California, Los Angeles

JOHN LOFTIS, University of California, Los Angeles

ASSISTANT EDITOR

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W. EARL BRITTON, University of Michigan

ADVISORY EDITORS

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EMMETT L. AVERY, State College of Washington

BENJAMIN BOYCE, Duke University

LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, University of Michigan

CLEANTH BROOKS, Yale University

JAMES L. CLIFFORD, Columbia University

ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, University of Chicago

LOUIS A. LANDA, Princeton University

SAMUEL H. MONK, University of Minnesota

ERNEST MOSSNER, University of Texas

JAMES SUTHERLAND, Queen Mary College, London

H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., University of California, Los Angeles

INTRODUCTION

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A VINDICATION OF THE PRESS is one of Defoe’s most characteristic pamphlets and for this reason as well as for its rarity deserves reprinting. Besides the New York Public Library copy, here reproduced, I know of but one copy, which is in the Indiana University Library. Neither the Bodleian nor the British Museum has a copy.

Like many items in the Defoe canon, this tract must be assigned to him on the basis of internal evidence; but this evidence, though circumstantial, is convincing. W.P. Trent included A Vindication in his bibliography of Defoe in the CHEL, and later bibliographers of Defoe have followed him in accepting it. Since the copy here reproduced was the one examined by Professor Trent, the following passage from his ms. notes is of interest:

The tract was advertised, for “this day,” in the St. James Evening Post, April 19-22, 1718. It is not included in the chief lists of Defoe’s writings, but it has been sold as his, and the only copy I have seen, one kindly loaned me by Dr. J.E. Spingarn, once belonged to some eighteenth century owner, who wrote Defoe’s name upon it. I was led by the advertisement mentioned above to seek the pamphlet, thinking it might be Defoe’s; but I failed to secure a sight of it until Professor Spingarn asked me whether in my opinion the ascription to Defoe was warranted, and produced his copy.

Perhaps the most striking evidence for Defoe’s authorship of A Vindication is the extraordinary reference to his own natural parts and to the popularity of The True-Born Englishman some seventeen years after that topical poem had appeared [pp. 29f.]. Defoe was justly proud of this verse satire, one of his most successful works, and referred to it many times in later writings; it is hard to believe, however, that anyone but Defoe would have praised it in such fulsome terms in 1718.

The general homeliness and facility of the style, together with characteristic phrases which occur in his other writings, indicate Defoe’s hand. Likewise homely similitudes and comparisons, specific parallels with his known work, and characteristic treatment of matter familiar in his other works, all furnish evidence of his authorship of this pamphlet.

Just what motive caused Defoe to write A Vindication of the Press is not clear. Unlike his earlier An Essay on the Regulation of the Press (1704), A Vindication does not seem to have been occasioned by a specific situation, and in it Defoe is not alone concerned with freedom of the press, but writes on a more general and discursive level. His opening paragraph states that “The very great Clamour against some late Performances of Authorship, and the unprecedented Criticisms introduc’d” make such an essay as he writes “absolutely necessary.” Yet there is no clear indication of just what works occasion this necessity. The ironic reference to Mr. Dennis at the end of the first paragraph, taken together with the praise of Mr. Pope’s translation of Homer and the allusion to “the malicious and violent Criticisms of a certain Gentleman in its Disfavour” [p. 23], might suggest that Defoe had in mind Dennis’ Remarks upon Mr. Pope’s Translation of Homer, but even the entire body of writings attacking Pope’s Homer would hardly seem sufficient to give point to this somewhat omnibus and unfocused essay.

Equally suggestive, perhaps, are Defoe’s references to the Bangorian controversy and to Bishop Hoadley [pp. 10, 23]. This controversy raged from 1717 to 1720 and produced a spate of pamphlets (to which Defoe contributed), many of which were marked by heated argument and acrimony. Defoe, with his liking for moderation, no doubt intended to make an oblique criticism of the license of many of the Bangorian tracts. But these tracts are certainly not advanced as the prime occasion for A Vindication.