The Novels and Selected Writings of Daniel Defoe: The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; Captain Singleton; Memoirs of a Cavalier; A Journal of the Plague Year; Colonel Jack; Moll Flanders; Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress; A Plan of the English Commerce.

DEFOE, Daniel.

$3,500.00

Item Number: 149672

Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher to the Shakespeare Head Press, 1927.

The Shakespeare Head Press limited edition of the novels and selected writings of Daniel Defoe, limited to seven hundred and fifty copies. Octavo, 11 volumes bound in full navy morocco with gilt titles to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, gilt decorated inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. In fine condition. An exceptional example.

Daniel Defoe was a prolific writer whose works spanned fiction, journalism, political pamphlets, and economic treatises. He is best known for his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719), a foundational text in the development of the English novel, which combined adventure, survival, and moral reflection. Defoe followed it with other notable fictions such as Moll Flanders, A Journal of the Plague Year, Colonel Jack, and Roxana, all of which explored themes of crime, repentance, social mobility, and the human condition. Beyond fiction, he wrote influential pamphlets like The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702), a biting satire on religious intolerance, and economic works such as A Plan of the English Commerce (1728), where he advocated for commercial expansion and economic policy reform.