Defoe’s other writings on plague may be found in his Review (1709), nos. 86 (22 Oct.), 87 (25 Oct.), 88 (27 Oct.), 89 (29 Oct.), 91 (3 Nov.), 105 (6 Dec.), and (1712), nos. 7 (23 Aug.), 8 (26 Aug.), and 11 (6 Sept.); items attributed to him from Applebee’s Journal, Mist’s Journal, and the Daily Post are reprinted in William Lee, Daniel Defoe: His Life and Recently Discovered Writings (1869), ii. 265, 277, 281, 284, 291, 294, 296, 378, 399, and 407. Those from Applebee’s Journal also appear in Michael F. Shugrue (ed.), Selected Poetry and Prose of Daniel Defoe (New York, 1968).
Critical Studies with Chapters or Sections on A Journal of the Plague Year
The Journal’s changing reputation may be traced in Pat Rogers (ed.), Defoe: The Critical Heritage (London, 1972). The introductions to the editions by Burgess, Landa (reprinted in Backscheider’s edition), Wall, and Mullan are recommended, as are the following studies:
Alkon, Paul K., Defoe and Fictional Time (Athens, Ga., 1979).
Backscheider, Paula R., Daniel Defoe: Ambition and Invention (Lexington, Ky., 1986).
Bender, John, Imagining the Penitentiary (Chicago, 1987).
Boardman, Michael M., Defoe and the Uses of Narrative (New Brunswick, 1983).
Conrad, Peter, The Everyman History of English Literature (London, 1985).
Foley, Barbara, Telling the Truth (Ithaca, NY, 1986).
Flynn, Carol Houlihan, The Body in Swift and Defoe (Cambridge, 1990).
Gregg, Stephen, Defoe and Manliness (Aldershot, 2009).
Hunter, J. Paul, Before Novels (New York, 1990).
—— The Reluctant Pilgrim (Baltimore, 1966).
Leavy, Barbara Fass, To Blight with Plague (New York, 1992).
Mayer, Robert, History and the Early English Novel: Matters of Fact from Bacon to Defoe (Cambridge, 1997).
Novak, Maximilian E., Economics and the Fiction of Daniel Defoe (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1962).
—— Realism, Myth and History in Defoe’s Fiction (Lincoln, Nebr. 1983).
Richetti, John J., Defoe’s Narratives (Oxford, 1975).
Rogers, Pat, Eighteenth Century Encounters (Brighton, 1985).
Sherman, Sandra, Finance and Fictionality in the Early Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 2005).
Starr, George A., Defoe and Spiritual Autobiography (Princeton, 1965).
—— Defoe and Casuistry (Oxford, 1971).
Wall, Cynthia, The Literary and Cultural Spaces of Restoration London (Cambridge, 1998).
Zimmerman, Everett, Defoe and the Novel (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1975).
—— Boundaries of Fiction (Ithaca, NY, 1996).
Critical Articles on A Journal of the Plague Year
Bastian, Frank H., ‘Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year Reconsidered’, Review of English Studies, 16 (1965), 151–73.
Juegel, Scott, ‘Writing Decomposition: Defoe and the Corpse’, Journal of Narrative Technique, 25 (1995), 139–53.
Mayer, Robert, ‘The Reception of A Journal of the Plague Year and the Nexus of Fiction and History in the Novel’, ELH 57 (1990), 529–56.
Moore, Benjamin, ‘Governing Discourses: Problems of Narrative Authority in A Journal of the Plague Year’, Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation, 33 (1992), 133–47.
Novak, Maximilian E., ‘Defoe and the Disordered City’, PMLA 92 (1977), 421–52.
Schonhorn, Manuel, ‘Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year: Topography and Intention’, Review of English Studies, 19 (1968), 387–402.
Wall, Cynthia, ‘Novel Streets: The Rebuilding of London and Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year’, Studies in the Novel, 30 (1998), 164–77.
Zimmerman, Everett, ‘H.F.’s Meditations: A Journal of the Plague Year’, PMLA 87 (1972), 417–23.
Modern Studies of Plague
Defoe’s likely medical sources are listed in the Explanatory Notes. The best modern studies of plague as a medical and sociological phenomenon are:
Champion, J. A. I., London’s Dreaded Visitation: The Social Geography of the Great Plague in 1665 (London, 1995).
Karlen, Arlo, Plague’s Progress. A Social History of Man and Disease (London, 2000).
McNeill, William H., Plagues and Peoples (London, 1976).
Mack, Arien, ed., In Time of Plague: The History and Social Consequences of Lethal Epidemic Disease (New York, 1991).
Scott, Susan, and Duncan, Christopher, Biology of Plagues: Evidence from Historical Populations (Cambridge, 2001).
Slack, Paul, ‘The Disappearance of Plague: An Alternative View’, Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 34 (1981), 469–76.
—— The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1985).
Ziegler, Philip, The Black Death (London, 1969).
Further Reading in Oxford World’s Classics
Defoe, Daniel, Moll Flanders, ed. G. A. Starr.
—— Robinson Crusoe, ed. Thomas Keymer.
—— Roxana, ed. John Mullan.
A CHRONOLOGY OF DANIEL DEFOE
Life and works
Historical events
1660
Autumn: Daniel Defoe, son of James Foe, a prosperous tallow chandler, born in St Giles, Cripplegate.
Restoration of the Stuart monarchy with the arrival and coronation of Charles II in London.
1662
Samuel Annesley ejected from his living at St Giles, Cripplegate. The Foes follow him out of the Anglican church, becoming Nonconformists or Dissenters.
Act of Uniformity requires the use of all rites and ceremonies from the Book of Common Prayer in Anglican services.
1665
The Foes probably leave London during the outbreak of plague.
Start of the second Anglo-Dutch War. Plague in London kills 68,000.
1668
Defoe’s mother, Ann Foe, dies some time between 1668 and 1671.
England, Sweden, and the United Provinces form the Triple Alliance against France.
1670
Charles agrees Treaty of Dover with Louis XIV, promising to restore England to Catholicism in return for subsidies.
1672
Defoe probably attends boarding school of James Fisher, an Independent clergyman, in Dorking, Surrey, at about this time.
Charles II issues Declaration of Indulgence, permitting licensed worship by Dissenters.
1673
First Test Act excludes Catholics and Dissenters from public office.
1674
Defoe enters Charles Morton’s academy in Newington Green, where he trains for the Presbyterian ministry.
Parliament proposes to place new limitations on future Catholic rulers. Third Anglo-Dutch War ends with the Treaty of Westminster.
1678
Onset of the Exclusion Crisis: allegations of a Jesuit plot to kill Charles II and replace him with his Catholic brother, James, precipitate sustained attempts to exclude James from the succession.
1681
Defoe decides against the ministry and becomes a wholesale hosier.
Parliament passes second Exclusion Bill against James.
1683
Defoe established as a hosier, living in Cornhill.
Rye House Plot to assassinate Charles II.
1684
Defoe marries Mary Tuffley, with a dowry of £3,700; the marriage produces six daughters and two sons.
Pope Innocent XI forms a Holy League to evict the Turks from Europe.
1685
Defoe is among the Monmouth rebels routed at the Battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset, but escapes the subsequent ‘Bloody Assizes’.
Accession of James II. Rebellion raised by James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, bastard son of Charles II, defeated at Sedgemoor. Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes, ending toleration for Protestants in France.
1687
Defoe becomes a liveryman of the Butchers’ Company. His name appears in the General Pardon issued for Monmouth rebels.
James II issues his first Declaration of Indulgence, suspending laws against Catholics and Dissenters.
1688
Defoe publishes his first pamphlet, A Letter to a Dissenter from His Friend at the Hague, alleging the insincerity of James II’s offer of religious toleration.
Second Declaration of Indulgence. William of Orange lands at Torbay, precipitating ‘Glorious Revolution’ and flight of James to France. England joins War of the League of Augsburg against France.
1689
Defoe joins a ‘Royal Regiment of Volunteer Horse’, led by Monmouth’s son, in parade honouring William III at the Lord Mayor’s Show.
Parliament offers crown to William and passes Bill of Rights, limiting power of the monarchy. James II lands in Ireland. Toleration Act grants Dissenters rights of religious assembly, but not civil equality.
1690
Throughout this period, Defoe invests in shipping and an import/export business trading in tobacco, timber, wines and spirits, and hosiery.
James II decisively defeated by William III at the Battle of the Boyne, near Drogheda, Ireland.
1692
Defoe goes bankrupt for £17,000, and is committed to the Fleet and later the King’s Bench Prison.
Massacre at Glencoe against the MacDonald clan, who had delayed pledging allegiance to William III.
1694
Establishes brick and tile factory at Tilbury, Essex. House of Lords rejects Bill to relieve named merchants (including Defoe) of part of their outstanding debt.
William makes a succession of political appointments, creating ‘Whig Junto’. Bank of England established.
1695
Defoe becomes an accountant to the commissioners of the window tax.
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