Defoe's fiction

First published in 1985, Defoe's Fiction explores Defoe's work by considering it in the context of its genre.

The book highlights the difficulty of placing Defoe's fiction in the most appropriate context due to it being aimed primarily at a popular market, in contrast to the more literary productions of Pope, Swift, or Addison. It also comments on the trend of focusing on Defoe's irony or emphasising his mimetic power. In doing so, it seeks to explain, rather than judge, Defoe's achievement by looking at his whole body of work in the context of its genre.