By Leon Guilhamet
His research areas Defoe's significant fiction squarely within the rising Whig tradition of the early eighteenth century. It deals a substitute for the view that Defoe is largely a author of felony or event fiction and to the Marxist judgment that he extols individualism or derives his maximum suggestion from well known print tradition. This examine reads the novels as reflections of mainstream Whig social and political issues, a similar issues Defoe published in his verse and expository writings prior to and after his significant interval of fiction writing, 1719-24.
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Defoe and the Whig Novel: A Reading of the Major Fiction
His examine locations Defoe's significant fiction squarely within the rising Whig tradition of the early eighteenth century. It deals a substitute for the view that Defoe is basically a author of felony or experience fiction and to the Marxist judgment that he extols individualism or derives his maximum suggestion from well known print tradition.
Extra info for Defoe and the Whig Novel: A Reading of the Major Fiction
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Upon arriving in Brazil, Robinson notes how quickly plantation owners become rich (34). Since the risks in this venture are minor, he soon realizes that he has reached the middle state of life his father recommended to him, but he has reached it only in a foreign land after a period of hardship. Had he followed his father's advice, he believes, he "could ha' done this as well in England" (35). a priority. England, of course, would have provided him with a social context that he never can attain in South America.
It is also clear that Defoe had a negative view of the rule of Charles II, even though he sometimes had positive things to say about Charles himself. Like the good Whig he was, Defoe disapproved 0£ the succession by James II. Robinson, however, consistently silent on political issues, has nothing to say about Jarries's rule when he returns briefly to England in 1687. Neither does. what is a major change in the English monarchy when the Declaration of Rights and its statutory form, the Bill of Rights of 1689, became the law of the land.
His vacillation is between pragmatism and Whig ethical principles. Robinson's courage rises as he convinces himself of his invulnerability: I fancy' d my self now like one of the ancient Giants, which are said to live in Caves, and Holes, in the Rocks, where none could come at them; for I perswaded my self while I was here, if five hundred Savageswere to hunt me, they could never find me out; or if they did, they would not venture to attack me here. (179) At this point, Robinson accepts his state, except for the fact that he cannot convince himself that he is "secur'd from the dread of the Savages" (181).