Gildon, Charles. [ROBINSON CRUSOE PARODY - FIVE COPIES RECORDED] .
The life and strange surprizing adventures of Mr. D---- de F--, of London, hosier, who has liv'd above fifty years by himself, in the Kingdoms of North and South Britain.
London: printed by Elizabeth Sadleir in School-House-Lane; for Patrick Dugan, Bookseller on Cork-Hill, 1719. 0. Hardcover. Octavo. 36pp. A8, B4-C4, D2. Third edition. Wrappers. ESTC T136523. A parody of Robinson Crusoe published the same year as that work, Gildon's pamphlet contains a vitriolic attack on Defoe and his book. No love was lost between the two men, who had a long-standing mutual animus: Defoe had attacked him as a rakehell, and Gildon disliked Defoe's politics. Gildon was fundamentally a hack, who was prosecuted for seditious libel a few years prior to this work, although he avoided prison and pillory. Kate Loveman's Reading Fictions, 1660-1740 contains an interesting analysis of this work, noting how its critique ironically reflects both Defoe's own methods of criticism and the modes and mores of the coffee-houses. Three copies in the UK and two in North America. Good.
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