An Essay Upon Projects
| File:An Essay upon Projects.png | |
| Author | Daniel Defoe |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Printed by R. R. for Tho[mas] Cockerill, at the Three Legs in the Poultrey |
Publication date | 1697 |
| Publication place | London, England |
| Media type | |
| Pages | xiv; 336 |
| OCLC | 6978589 |
An Essay Upon Projects (1697)[1] was the first volume published by Daniel Defoe.[2] It begins with an introduction containing a portrait of his time as a "Projecting Age",[3] and subsequently illustrates plans for the economic and social improvement of England,[4] including an early proposal for a national insurance scheme.
Publication
[edit | edit source]The text was written in 1693 and published in 1697. The title page states that it was "[p]rinted by R. R. for Tho[mas] Cockerill, at the Three Legs in the Poultrey. MDCXCVII." There is no known manuscript of the work. The essay was reprinted several times and reached a wide audience.[5]: 105 The book was dedicated to Dalby Thomas.
Subsequent publications on the same theme
[edit | edit source]Many of its issues were later revised in a series of pamphlets which were published under the nom-de-plume of Andrew Moreton.[2] They are titled Every-body's Business, Is No-body's Business (1725), The Protestant Monastery (1726), Parochial Tyranny (1727), Augusta Triumphans (1728) and Second Thoughts are Best (1729).[2] Compared to these works, however, An Essay Upon Projects is more focused on moral criticism than being project-oriented.[6]
A list of the chapters
[edit | edit source]- Author's Preface – to Dalby Thomas, Esq.
- Author's Introduction
- The History of Projects
- Of Projectors
- Of Banks
- Of the Highways
- Of Assurances
- Of Friendly Societies
- The Proposal is for a Pension Office
- Of Wagering
- Of Fools
- Of Bankrupts
- Of Academies
- Of a Court Merchant
- Of Seamen
- The Conclusion
References
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- ^ Defoe, p. 1.
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Bibliography
[edit | edit source]- Backscheider, P B, Daniel Defoe.His Life, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1989.
- “Social Projects”, Daniel Defoe. The Collection of the Lily Library, Indiana University Bloomington, 2008, retrieved 25 October 2015, <http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/defoe/projects.html>
- George, M D, London Life in the Eighteenth Century, Penguin Books, Great Britain, 1979.
- Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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- Novak, M E, “Last Productive Years”, Daniel Defoe Master of Fictions. His Life and Ideas, Oxford University Press, United States of America, 2001.
External links
[edit | edit source]- Daniel Defoe – The Collection of the Lily Library
- An Essay Upon Projects by Daniel Defoe at the Internet Archive
- An Essay Upon Projects by Daniel Defoe at Google Books
- An Essay Upon Projects by Daniel Defoe in the Gutenberg Project
