Beyond Belief - The Real Life of Daniel Defoe [Paperback]

John Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 26, 2009

In this scholarly and imaginative book, John Martin reveals for the first time a life of Daniel Defoe (1661 ?-1731) which, although sometimes hinted at before, has never been discovered. Defoe led a long and mysterious life as a journalist, government agent and secret 'Governor General' of the press and was the writer of a mountain of books, pamphlets and poems. He lived in tumultuous times in which any doubts that Britain was to develop as a parliamentary democracy were settled for ever. Defoe was a religious dissenter but notwithstanding tills he was often at the centre of political and religious debate. Controversially, John Martin argues that Defoe's complex sexuality was the principal reason for the secret and difficult life he led. Although simultaneously married to three 'wives' by whom he had eight children, he was willing to use same-sex relationships to advance himself socially and politically and for money. John Martin argues that Defoe's fictions reveal the events of his life and that in a real sense the pirates, courtesans, and criminals who crowd ills pages - when properly understood - are Defoe in ills many disguises. In real life Defoe was always in debt, frequently arrested and imprisoned, pilloried, twice bankrupted and he ended his life penniless in hiding from a blackmailer.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

To biographers, Defoe, father of the modern novel, is the most enticing English literary figure next to Shakespeare. Plenty of documentation of him has been found but doesn't help much with persistent questions: Why did he move around so much? Why did he have constant money troubles? Why is he almost completely mum about his own life? Martin, who like his subject is both businessman and novelist, believes such questions can be answered if one presumes not that Defoe was fearfully hiding youthful participation in Monmouth's rebellion, as other biographers have thought, but that Defoe was a cross-dressing homosexual. Martin admits to speculating but thinks Defoe becomes clearer if his clandestine sexual identity and the blackmail it laid him open to are considered plausible and inferentially investigated. The major clues Martin follows up are Defoe's less-than-cozy marriages; his long, intense relationships with certain men; his novels' protagonist-narrators' personalities and doings; and the curious ways he went through money. Professional scholars may pooh-pooh Martin's exercise. Those hooked by Defoe's fundamental elusiveness may be spellbound. Olson, Ray --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Anglia Publishing (June 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0755204735
• ISBN-13: 978-0755204731
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,611,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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