'A new discovery of an old intrigue' : a re-evaluation of daniel defoe's library catalogue, with a case study of its iberian content

Abstract

This thesis presents a comprehensive re-examination of Daniel Defoe's library catalogue, a problematic resource which has been consistently neglected and maligned throughout the history of Defoe studies. Surveying both the catalogue's broad critical history and its treatment in specialist scholarship, it locates two major problems in the current body of knowledge. Firstly, Defoe scholarship's concentration on dividing the inventory between Defoe and Phillips Farewell (whose libraries were combined in the sale) ignores the full extent of its attribution problems, since many of the listed items were added to the sale by bookseller Olive Payne. Secondly, the field lacks a complete biographical and business profile of Payne, which is necessary for both the location of salted items and for tracing his connections to the Defoes. Solutions to both problems are offered here, as Payne's contribution to the Defoe/Farewell inventory is revealed through his previous sales and his habitual business practices, which are detailed in the first full-length biographical study of this obscure bookseller. New guidelines and recommendations for catalogue usage are formulated on the basis of these findings. The thesis highlights the catalogue's potential in the exploration of neglected sources and contexts for Defoe's work. Credible usage is demonstrated through a two-part study of Defoe's diverse Spanish contexts and their relation to the fictional modes represented in the catalogue. Close reading of his use of picaresque fiction, Italianate amatory novellas and moral allegory reveals both the direct influence of specific sources and a complex manifestation of genre conventions that supports further investigation of the nexus of Spanish literary texts behind Defoe's writing. Show more