Transformations, Ideology, and the Real in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Other Narratives

Maximillian E. Novak is distinguished research professor of English, emeritus, at the University of California, Los Angeles.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of IllustrationsIntroductionChapter 1: Defoe as an Innovator of Fictional FormChapter 2: Picturing the Thing Itself, or Not: Defoe, Painting, Prose Fiction, and the Arts of DescribingChapter 3: The Unmentionable and the Ineffable in Defoe's FictionChapter 4: Novel or Fictional Memoir: The Scandalous Publication of Robinson CrusoeChapter 5: Meatless Fridays: CAnnibalism as Theme and Metaphor in Robinson CrusoeChapter 6: Edenic Desires: Robinson Crusoe, The Robinsonade, and Utopian FormsChapter 7: Strangely Surpriz'd by Robinson Crusoe: A Response to David Fishelov's "Robinson Crusoe, 'The Other,' and the Poetics of Surprise"Chapter 8: "Looking with Wonder Upon the Sea" : Defoe's Maritime Fictions, Robinson Crusoe, and "The Curious Age We Live in"Chapter 9: The Cave and the Grotto: Imagined Interiors and Realist Form in Robinson CrusoeChapter 10: "The SUme of Humane Misery?": Ambiguities of Exile in Defoe's FictionChapter 11: Ideological Tendencies in Three Crusoe Narratives by British Novelists during the Period following the French Revolution: Charles Dibdin's Hannah Hewit, The Demale Crusoe, Maria Edgeworth's Forester, and Frances Burney's The WandererAfterwordBibliographyAbout the Author

Written over the span of 20 years, all but one of them previously published, these 11 essays consider the tripartite thematic suggested in the title. 'Transformations' refers to questions of genre and how Defoe advanced toward a new form of fiction, principally in Robinson Crusoe, but also in other work. 'Ideology' is represented in Defoe’s own work and in the work of writers he inspired--Hannah Hewit, Maria Edgeworth, Frances Burney. 'Real' shows up in such chapters as the second, which frames Defoe’s realism within a perspective drawn from Dutch paintings. . . .The book offers a winsome look at Novak’s early years of studying Defoe, and it concludes with ruminations on Defoe’s present and future importance. In the end, this is a significant contribution to Defoe studies because it includes fine essays (among them the brilliant 'Meatless Fridays: Cannibalism as Theme and Metaphor in Robinson Crusoe') bristling with scholarly expertise and alert familiarity with critical theory, written in a clear and winning style. This volume cumulates the wisdom of a distinguished scholar who has lived in intimacy with his subject for some six decades. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.