From the date of this, success until 1727, that is, from his 60th to his 68th year, Defoe's work is simply astounding both in quantity and in quality. Of about 70 items some 30 are volumes and several of the remainder almost too large to be called pamphlets. To this period belong the picaresque stories (Moll Flanders) (1722), 'Colonel Jacque' (1722) and 'The Fortunate Mistress' or (1724) —unrivaled as studies in low life and showing growth on Defoe's part in character-drawing and plot-construction; the adventure stories of Singleton' (1720) — remarkable for the knowledge displayed of African geography —and 'A New Voyage 'round the World' (1725) — interesting for its descriptions of the lower part of South America; the 'History' of a famous teller of fortunes, Duncan Camp bell (1720) ; those portrayals of stirring his torical epochs and episodes, of a Cavalier' (1720), 'A Journal of the Plague Year) (1722)— probably Defoe's best work after Crusoe— and 'Due Prepara tions for the (1722); and those popular manuals of conduct, the curious 'Religious Courtship' (1722), and the two parts of 'The Complete English Tradesman' (1725, 1727). To. these books, some of them masterpieces in their kind, must be added a 'History' of Peter the Great (1723), a book on the servant question Great Law of Subordination Considered,) 1724), three volumes of an early guide-book CA Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain,' 1724, 1725, 1726), The Political His tory of the Devil' (1726) and 'A System of Magic' (1726), at least 10 pamphlets on famous criminals, such as Jack Sheppard, and several tracts on commercial, economic and social topics — some of them published under the assumed name of Andrew Moreton. There is scarcely another such record of literary activity on the part of an aging man, and these multifarious productions illustrate his times better than is the case with the writings of almost any other author. These were nearly always anonymous save in such a case as 'The Four Years Voy ages of Capt. George Roberts) (1726), which describe the adventures among the Cape Verde Islands of a possible real seaman.
Between 1727 and his death Defoe pub lished at least 30 books and tracts, among them 'Conjugal Lewdness) (1727), a well-meant but hazardous volume; 'An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions (1728), 'A New Family Instructor) (1727), Plan of the English Commerce' (1728) and a number of pamphlets many of which were specially de signed to promote the better civic government of London. He also seems to have compiled for a veteran, Capt. George Carleton, a volume of (1728) describing experiences as a soldier and prisoner in Spain, which has been too implicitly trusted by historians, and for a certain Robert Drury a volume entitled !Madagascar) (1729), giving an account of the young man's captivity on that island. These books are frequently ascribed to their putative authors, and the first has been attributed to Dean Swift, but there is good reason to hold that Defoe was mainly responsible for them.
It is pleasant to believe that his incessant labors enabled Defoe to spend some of his last years in comfort at Stoke Newington; certainly, from the account of him given by his son-in-law, Henry Baker, the naturalist, he must have had a fair income. About 1730, however, at a time when he was working on a periodical, The Political State of Great Britain, founded by an old rival, Abel Boyer, he seems to have deeded his property in trust for his wife and daughters to one of his sons, who apparently was false to his trust. Defoe, probably to escape some of his old persecutors, went into hiding, and in April 1731 died in London lodgings. Mystery surrounds his last days, and there are numerous passages in his more active period that need to be cleared up. The man's character, too, re mains enigmatic, though we may be sure that he was neither the hero of the early biographers nor the unprincipled mercenary and liar of many contemporaries and some latter-day critics. Fortunately there is little doubt that in his com bined achievements as journalist, pamphleteer, realistic novelist and miscellaneous purveyor of information and instruction he is unsur passed among prose-writers. See ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Bibliography.— No edition of Defoe's works contains more than a small fraction of his writings. The best is that printed at Oxford in 20 volumes (1840-41). A good edition begun in 1840 by the younger William Hazlitt did not get beyond three volumes. 'The Compleat Eng lish Gentleman' and Royal Education' were first printed from a manuscript in the British Museum by Dr. Biihlbring in 1890 and 1895. There are two recent editions of the fiction — the excellent one in 16 volumes, edited by the late G. A. Aitken (1895), and that of equal scope, by Dr. G. H. Maynadier (1904). The most important biographies are those by Walter Wilson (1830, 3 vols.—very valuable for its account of Defoe's times), by William Chadwick (1859— rather eccentric), by William Lee (1869), 3 vols.— the second and third con taining Defoe's newspaper articles), and by Thomas Wright (1894, useful, but disfigured by the curious theory that Defoe kept a vow of silence for a period equal to that spent by Crusoe upon his island). Consult also John Forster's 'Historical and Biographical Essays' (1858), Minto's (Daniel De Foe' Men of Letters,' 1879) and D. W. Rannie's De Foe' (The Stanhope Essay, 1890). Lee's bibliography of 254 items (slightly amended by Wright) was long standard, but is now antiquated. His selections from Defoe's newspapers, although unsupported by much external evidence, seem to have been made with great skill. Consult for further information the present writer's chapter in the ninth volume of 'The Cambridge History of English Litera ture' and his volume on Defoe in the 'How to Know the Authors' Series' (1916).