Author | Daniel Defoe |
---|---|
Original title | A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies. Giving a particular and diverting account of whatever is curious and worth observation, viz. I. |
Language | English |
Subject | Great Britain |
Published | 1724 |
Publisher | George Strahan |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
OCLC | 1264944631 |
A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain is an account of his travels by English author Daniel Defoe, first published in three volumes between 1724 and 1727. [1] Other than Robinson Crusoe , Tour was Defoe's most popular and financially successful work during the eighteenth century. Pat Rogers notes that in Defoe's use of the "literary vehicle (the 'tour' or 'circuit') that could straddle the literal and the imaginative," "Nothing...anticipated Defoe's Tour". Thanks in part to his extensive travels and colourful background as a soldier, businessman, and spy, Defoe had "hit on the best blend of objective fact and personal commentary" in his descriptions of locations and trips around Britain. [2]
The Tour is roughly divided into several tours, or circuits, around Britain. Volume 1 contains three letters. The first two, through Essex, Colchester, Harwich, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire, and through Kent Coast, Maidstone, Canterbury, Sussex, Hampshire, and Surrey, are complete circuits, both beginning and ending in London. Letter 3 describes a journey out to Land's End, while Letter 4 starts Volume 2 with the journey back. Letter 5 focuses on London and the Court. Volume 2 ends with Letters 6 and 7 describing a path out to Anglesey and back. Finally, in Volume 3, the narrator begins at the Trent or the Mersey and slowly travels northwards from the Midlands, taking up Letters 8 through 10. Scotland is divided into three convenient units for Letters 11 through 13.
Defoe did not necessarily travel to all of these locations, and certainly did not travel through them as or just before he was writing the work; rather, he relied on his past journeys, likely during his time as a merchant or while working for politician Robert Harley in the early 18th century, and, at times, relied on or was inspired by other travel literature such as William Camden's Britannia and John Strype's new version of John Stow's Survey of London.
Following the first edition, printed between 1724 and 1727, the Tour was published several more times. A decade after the original printing, printer and future novelist Samuel Richardson secured the rights and printed the second edition of the Tour, releasing an edition with substantial revisions on 13 October 1738. He was responsible for at least some of the revisions in this edition, as well as in the subsequent editions of 1742, 1748, 1753, and 1761–62. Richardson's biographers comment that a "travel book seems an odd thing for Richardson to have worked on, since few men were less travelled," and note that, "as it is revised [by Richardson], the Tour becomes less and less like a travel book". [3]
Daniel Defoe was an English novelist, journalist, merchant, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.
Samuel Richardson was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753). He printed almost 500 works, including journals and magazines, working periodically with the London bookseller Andrew Millar. Richardson had been apprenticed to a printer, whose daughter he eventually married. He lost her along with their six children, but remarried and had six more children, of whom four daughters reached adulthood, leaving no male heirs to continue the print shop. As it ran down, he wrote his first novel at the age of 51 and joined the admired writers of his day. Leading acquaintances included Samuel Johnson and Sarah Fielding, the physician and Behmenist George Cheyne, and the theologian and writer William Law, whose books he printed. At Law's request, Richardson printed some poems by John Byrom. In literature, he rivalled Henry Fielding; the two responded to each other's literary styles.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1724.
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Events from the year 1724 in Great Britain.
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