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The Deplorable Daniel Defoe: His Supposed Ignorance, Immorality, and Lack of Conscious Artistry

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The Deplorable Daniel Defoe: His Supposed Ignorance, Immorality, and Lack of Conscious Artistry The Deplorable Daniel Defoe: His Supposed Ignorance, Immorality, and Lack of Conscious Artistry Ma imillian !" #o$ak Originally presented at the Fifth Biennial Meeting of the Defoe Society, September 2017. %# &' (!)*+A*, 1787, a member of t/e House of Lords quoted Daniel Defoe in a speec/ on matters pertaining to Scotland" Defoe1s istory of the Union /ad just recently appeared in a ne3 edition, and /e seemed a likely person to quote for /is expertise on t/e creation of sixteen peers from Scotland to sit in t/e House of Lords" )ut Lord Loughborough rose to 3arn t/e speaker t/at Defoe 3as not a 4creditable5 person to 0uote" He pointed to t/e passage in Ale ander 6ope1s Dunciad 3/ic/ /ad Defoe punis/ed in t/e pillory for /is actions and 3arned t/at Defoe1s reputation /ad been too damaged by 6ope to be named as an aut/ority on any subject 7#hitehall $%ening &ost8" Lord Loughborough1s reliance upon 6ope as an arbiter of cultural capital and /is ignorance about Defoe /a$e to be $ie3ed as fairly symptomatic of t/is particular date" A fe3 years later, in &-9:, matters /ad begun to c/ange" ;eorge Chalmers 3as to publis/ /is biograp/y of Defoe, t/e elegant edition of 'obinson (rusoe 3it/ illustrations by Thomas Stot/ard appeared, and anot/er Crusoe edition 3it/ Defoe1s )rue*Born Englishman along 3it/ /is tract on t/e Original &o+er of t/e people as t/e source of go$ernment 3as also publis/ed" )y t/e <rst decade of t/e nineteent/ century, Defoe /ad already been establis/ed as an important 3riter of <ction" Indeed, as t/e ne3 century began rejecting many aspects of t/e pre$ious period, including its often lo3 estimate of narrati$e fiction, Defoe began emerging as a signi<cant literary and intellectual <gure of t/at era" That t/is 3as, in fact, a re= emergence—a return to t/e reputation /e /ad enjoyed during t/e early eighteent/ century—seems on occasions to /a$e been forgotten" It is t/e peculiar nature of t/at forgetting t/at I want to discuss" Digital Defoe: Studies in Defoe & His Contemporaries 9, no. 1 (fall 2019) ISSN 1948-1802 (or example, $ery recently As/ley Mars/all /as interpreted t/e /iatus in Defoe1s reputation as an indication t/at /e /ad no reputation to sal$age" S3ift, 6ope, and ;ay, t/e leaders of t/e Scriblerian Club appeared to regard Defoe 3it/ contempt" S/ould t/ey not /a$e /ad a better grasp of t/e true literary standing of one of t/eir contemporaries t/an many of t/e critics of t/e past t3o centuries 7Mars/all, 4(abricating Defoes58? Is not t/is reputation of Defoe somet/ing intangible, somet/ing made up? In a later essay t/at points out t/e lack of e ternal e$idence in establis/ing t/e Defoe canon, s/e goes so far as to say t/at t/e $ery idea of Daniel Defoe, t/e aut/or, is a myt/" The corpus of 3orks ascribed to /im by modern bibliograp/ers cannot truly be ascribed to /im 3it/ any certainty (Mars/all, “)eyond (urbank and O3ens5 131-&9:8" I" Mars/all1s argument follo3s only a slightly di@erent pat/ from t/at laid out by a series of journal articles t/at appeared in &.AB" The 3riter of t/ose essays on Defoe, publis/ed in a journal 3it/ t/e all=inclusi$e title, ,e London Re%ie+ of Politics, Society, -iterature, .rt, and Science, asked 3/y Defoe appears to /a$e /ad no real recognition from /is contemporaries" C/y did not Dosep/ Addison and Sir *ic/ard Steele treasure /is company? Like /im, t/ey 3ere C/igs" Could t/ey not /a$e enjoyed sitting around 3it/ Defoe for a /earty discussion of politics? The solution for t/is 3riter 3as dependent on a series of letters t/at re$ealed Defoe as a go$ernment spy, running a $ariety of ne3spapers to undercut t/e publication of ideas t/at t/e go$ernment preferred not to /a$e aired" In t/ese letters to Charles de la (aye, Defoe explained /o3, no matter /o3 muc/ /e might try, /e 3ould occasionally be unable to pre$ent Dacobite sympat/iEers suc/ as #at/aniel Mist from publis/ing seditious material in t/eir 2ournals 7-etters BF:=A&8" Go t/e 3riter for ,e -ondon 'e%ie+ of &olitics, Society, -iterature, .rt, and Science in 1864, t/ey t/re3 light on /is c/aracter in general: 4Ho3 muc/ credit is to be attac/ed to t/e statements of a 3riter in /is ot/er 3orks against /is political and religious opponents, 3/en /e could t/us prostitute /is /onour and /is talents, 3e need not insist"5 At a time 3/en po$erty 3as considered somet/ing like a crime, t/e notion t/at Defoe may /a$e died penniless in a 4sponging /ouse5 only added to /is immoral nature" It must /a$e been t/is unsa$ory reputation t/at forced t/e great 3riters of t/e time—S3ift, 6ope, and Addison—to s/un /im" They 3ere t/e 3riters 3/o carried t/e burden of morality during t/is period" Defoe /ad /is strong defender in /is biograp/er, Cilliam Lee, but Cilliam Minto, t/e aut/or of a study of Defoe publis/ed in 1879, summed up /is sur$ey of Defoe1s c/aracter in t/e line stating t/at Defoe 3as t/e 4greatest liar t/at e$er li$ed5 7Daniel Defoe &A98"i The image of Defoe as a saintly guardian of C/ig principles, t/at /ad been in place since 1753, 3/en *obert S/iels contributed /is biograp/y to Theop/ilus Cibber1s -i%es of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland, 3as more or less s/attered" 2 If Defoe1s c/aracter and career as a 3riter on politics 3as under attack to3ard t/e end of t/e nineteent/ century, t/ere 3ere also t/ose 3/o disparaged /is standing as a 3riter" Most critics (Charles Lamb and Cilliam HaElitt excepted8 considered Moll Flanders, (olonel Jac2, and 'o3ana to be t/e kind of 3orks t/at s/ould ne$er be read by younger readers and /ence unacceptable" Sir Calter Scott t/ought t/em 4a coarse species of amusement…justly rejected5 by t/e re<ned taste of t/e nineteent/ century, and t/at opinion go$erned most of t/e criticism during t/e remainder of t/is period (Scott &AA8" This kind of attitude 3as per/aps most $e/emently stated in 1879, 3/en Ant/ony Grollope argued t/at 'o3ana 3as completely $ile 3it/ no redeeming features (24=B'8" )ut t/e critic 3/o pro$ided t/e template for muc/ of t/e subsequent negati$e criticism of Defoe1s <ction 3as un0uestionably Leslie Step/en" His essay, 4De (oe1s #o$els,5 3/ic/ <rst appeared in &.A. in ,e (ornhill Magazine, 3as subsequently republis/ed in Step/en1s t/ree=$olume ours in a -ibrary 7&.-B=79), an influential 3ork t/at was frequently reprinted in Britain and t/e United States into t/e t3entiet/ century" Step/en maintained t/at Defoe1s supposed realism, /ighly praised by Sir Calter Scott, Laetetia )arbauld, and Charles Lamb as making 'obinson (rusoe unique —a masterful 3ork of <ction—could not be placed alongside t/e realists of contemporary !uropean <ction suc/ as HonorK de )alEac" Defoe1s 4realism5 3as merely a bundle of tricks: 4H/e /ad t/e most mar$elous po3er e$er kno3n of gi$ing $erisimilitude to /is <ctionsL or, in ot/er 3ords again, /e /ad t/e most amaEing talent on record for telling lies5 7 ours 1:2=A8" Step/en returned to /is consideration of Defoe1s realism in /is essay on )alEac, also reproduced in /is ours in a -ibrary" C/ereas )alEac /ad a program for depicting t/e social and economic problems of t/e modern 3orld, Defoe 3ould merely t/ro3 in a fe3 insigni<cant details to trick t/e reader into belie$ing /eMs/e 3as experiencing a real 3orld" Step/en admitted t/at )alEac occasionally resorted to t/e kind of 4tricks5 t/at Defoe used to create a sense of t/e real, but /is <ction 3as sa$ed by a subtle creation of c/aracter and understanding of psyc/ology 7 ours 3: &.A=8, &9:8" As for creating a sense of t/e real, 3/ereas Scott /ad compared Defoe to t/e realist painters of Holland1s ;olden Age, Step/en refused to accept t/is 2udgment" The comparison to t/e Dutc/ realists might apply 3ell enough to )alEac, but Defoe 3as a mere sign painter for some commercial enterprise" %n t/e ot/er hand, c/aracteriEation in Defoe1s no$els, as Step/en /ad explained in his essay on Defoe, amounted to not/ing more t/an Defoe asking /imself 3/at /e 3ould do if /e were in t/at situation" His c/aracters 3ere no more t/an so many Defoe1s" His female c/aracters, Moll and *o ana, /ad not/ing truly feminine about t/em" They 3ere men>$ersions of Defoe—in skirts" There was no psyc/ology and no 4sentiment"5 He admitted t/at Defoe1s realist tec/nique 3orked 3ell enough for .
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