- Title Pages
- Illustration
- Dedication
- Acnowledgements
- List of Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 After the Revolution
- 2 The Education of a Dissenter
- 3 Meditating on Matters Spiritual and Secular
- 4 Marriage and Rebellion
- 5 Financial Woes and Recovery
- 6 Propagandist for William III
- 7 <i>The True-Born Englishman</i> and Other Satires
- 8 An Age of Plot and Deceit, of Contradiction and Paradox
- 9 From Pilloried Libeller to Government Propagandist
- 10 ‘Writing History Sheet by Sheet’
- 11 From Public Journalist to Lunar Philosopher
- 12 Defoe as Spy and Whig Propagandist
- 13 A ‘True Spy’ in Scotland
- 14 In Limbo Between Causes and Masters
- 15 Journalism and History in ‘An Age of Mysteries and Paradoxes’<sup>1</sup>
- 16 How to Sell Out While Keeping One’s Integrity (Somewhat) Intact in That ‘Lunatick Age’<sup>1</sup>
- 17 These Dangerous Times
- 18 ‘A Miserable Divided Nation’<sup>1</sup>
- 19 A Change of Monarchs and the Whig’s Revenge
- 20 Times When Honest Men Must Reserve Themselves for Better Fortunes
- 21 Corrector General of the Press: A Digression on Defoe as a Journalist
- 22 The Year Before <i>Robinson Crusoe:</i>
- 23 <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> and the Variability of Life
- 24 After <i>Crusoe</i>:
- 25 Creating Fictional Worlds
- 26 Describing Britain in the 1720s
- 27 Enter Henry Baker
- 28 Last Productive Years
- 29 Sinking Under the Weight of Affliction
- Works Cited
- Index
Last Productive Years
Last Productive Years
- Chapter:
- (p.674) 28 Last Productive Years
- Source:
- Daniel Defoe: Master of Fictions
- Author(s):
Maximillian E. Novak
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Free from the obligations of his journalism, Daniel Defoe might have been able to nurse his ailing body and wander in the garden of his house at Stoke Newington contemplating the ‘Chequer-work’ of events that had been his life, but such an ending was hardly compatible with his restless spirit. The engagement between Henry Baker and Defoe’s daughter Sophia began to founder over questions involving the extent of her dowry. What Defoe said about trade as a form of crime without morality seems to have applied to his dealings over Sophia’s dowry. It seems clear that once the marriage became a matter of business, of money and property, Defoe treated it without decent feeling. As if his relations with Sophia and Henry Baker were not sufficient cause for him to worry about the vicissitudes of marriage, Defoe had been writing about the role of women in marriage for a number of years. Defoe left two works unpublished at his death, The Compleat English Gentleman and Of Royal Education.
Keywords: Daniel Defoe, Henry Baker, dowry, marriage, crime, women, The Compleat English Gentleman, Of Royal Education, property, death
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- Title Pages
- Illustration
- Dedication
- Acnowledgements
- List of Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 After the Revolution
- 2 The Education of a Dissenter
- 3 Meditating on Matters Spiritual and Secular
- 4 Marriage and Rebellion
- 5 Financial Woes and Recovery
- 6 Propagandist for William III
- 7 <i>The True-Born Englishman</i> and Other Satires
- 8 An Age of Plot and Deceit, of Contradiction and Paradox
- 9 From Pilloried Libeller to Government Propagandist
- 10 ‘Writing History Sheet by Sheet’
- 11 From Public Journalist to Lunar Philosopher
- 12 Defoe as Spy and Whig Propagandist
- 13 A ‘True Spy’ in Scotland
- 14 In Limbo Between Causes and Masters
- 15 Journalism and History in ‘An Age of Mysteries and Paradoxes’<sup>1</sup>
- 16 How to Sell Out While Keeping One’s Integrity (Somewhat) Intact in That ‘Lunatick Age’<sup>1</sup>
- 17 These Dangerous Times
- 18 ‘A Miserable Divided Nation’<sup>1</sup>
- 19 A Change of Monarchs and the Whig’s Revenge
- 20 Times When Honest Men Must Reserve Themselves for Better Fortunes
- 21 Corrector General of the Press: A Digression on Defoe as a Journalist
- 22 The Year Before <i>Robinson Crusoe:</i>
- 23 <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> and the Variability of Life
- 24 After <i>Crusoe</i>:
- 25 Creating Fictional Worlds
- 26 Describing Britain in the 1720s
- 27 Enter Henry Baker
- 28 Last Productive Years
- 29 Sinking Under the Weight of Affliction
- Works Cited
- Index
