New Books in British Studies

Jeremy Black, "Defoe's Britain" (St. Augustine's Press, 2023)


Listen Later

The Weight of Words Series continues with Defoe's Britain (St. Augustine's Press, 2023), as historian Jeremy Black uses this writer to interpret Britain in the late 1600s, and likewise looks to the times to interpret the fiction. As seen in previous studies on Christie, Smollett, Fielding, and the Gothic novelists, Black tells the story of the story-teller, and presents the picture of British nationalism that "was the product, history, and record of struggle--collective and individual--as well as its defence. Defoe provides particular accounts of this struggle, both in foreign seas and lands, and at home. This struggle had a moral character that is difficult to capture today."

Defoe was an outsider, a man of many interests whom Black asserts evades too precise a portrait or coherent description of character and career. But he is a traveler, in the literal and imaginative senses, and in his engagement with life and its issues and willingness to associate with 'low-life' prefigures later literary giants like Smollett and Fielding. More than the establishment of genre, Defoe created the writer "whose business is observation." Black's account of this parcel of the British past is impeccable because it is in fact an account that the past, in Defoe, gives of itself. "As a writer, Defoe brought together a reality usually presented as, and endorsed by, history, with the imaginative focus of storytelling, and the direction of, variously, propaganda, analysis, and exemplary tale."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in British StudiesBy Marshall Poe

  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4

4

3 ratings


More shows like New Books in British Studies

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,410 Listeners

Dan Snow's History Hit by History Hit

Dan Snow's History Hit

4,619 Listeners

Coffee House Shots by The Spectator

Coffee House Shots

185 Listeners

Americano by The Spectator

Americano

258 Listeners

The Book Club by The Spectator

The Book Club

9 Listeners

John Anderson: Conversations by John Anderson

John Anderson: Conversations

289 Listeners

Today in Focus by The Guardian

Today in Focus

990 Listeners

The Ancients by History Hit

The Ancients

2,916 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

12,389 Listeners

The Rest Is Politics by Goalhanger

The Rest Is Politics

3,248 Listeners

Ukraine: The Latest by The Telegraph

Ukraine: The Latest

1,747 Listeners

Empire by Goalhanger

Empire

2,007 Listeners

Past Present Future by David Runciman

Past Present Future

303 Listeners

Battle Lines by The Telegraph

Battle Lines

159 Listeners

Alas Vine & Hitchens by Daily Mail

Alas Vine & Hitchens

10 Listeners