The Consolidator | Daniel Defoe | Literature | Classics | eBooks
The Consolidator
by Daniel Defoe
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Windows 98+, Tablet PC, Pocket PC 2003 Features
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The Consolidator Summary:
| By 1705 already an established and tempestuous pamphleteer and journalist, this is a wonderful example of Defoe's direct and inventive style. Acknowledging its debt to prior works by Godwin and Wilkins, The Consolidator uses 'the lunar world to satirize England's political and economic abuses and to anticipate scientific inventions' (Gibson). Although most critics are content to analyse it as a prototype Gulliveriad, it is also a fascinating document in itself. Most of the work is dedicated to lengthy descriptions of the world in the Moon, given veracity through the claim that all of this information has been accrued during the narrator's lengthy sojourn in China, a land which has 'many sorts of Learning which these Parts of the World never heard of'. Defoe's unusual sleight of hand here is to say that in fact, Chinese innovation is due almost exclusively to the writings of Mira-cho-cho-lasmo, an ancient visitor from the moon who instructed them in the 'most exquisite Accomplishments of those Lunar Regions'. According to Gove, after a handful of editions in the first decade of the eighteenth century, this work was not republished except in pamphlet and extract editions until a Tegg version in 1840. Scarce on the market, this is a wonderful work and testament to Defoe's enduring importance to the imaginary voyage. |
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| It cannot be unknown to any that have travell'd into the Dominions of the Czar of Muscovy, that this famous rising Monarch, having studied all Methods for the Encrease of his Power, and the Enriching as well as Polishing his Subjects, has travell'd through most part of Europe, and visited the Courts of the greatest Princes; from whence, by his own Observation, as well as by carrying with him Artists in most useful Knowledge, he has transmitted most of our General Practice, especially in War and Trade, to his own Unpolite People; and the Effects of this Curiosity of his are exceeding visible in his present Proceedings; for by the Improvements he obtained in his European Travels, he has Modell'd his Armies, form'd new Fleets, settled Foreign Negoce in several remote Parts of the World; and we now see his Forces besieging strong Towns, with regular Approaches; and his Engineers raising Batteries, throwing Bombs, &c. like other Nations; whereas before, they had nothing of Order among them, but carried all by Ouslaught and Scalado, wherein they either prevailed by the Force of Irresistible Multitude, or were Slaughter'd by heaps, and left the Ditches of their Enemies fill'd with their Dead Bodies. |
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| By 1705 already an established and tempestuous pamphleteer and journalist, this is a wonderful example of Defoe's direct and inventive style. Acknowledging its debt to prior works by Godwin and Wilkins, The Consolidator uses 'the lunar world to satirize England's political and economic abuses and to anticipate scientific inventions' (Gibson). Although most critics are content to analyse it as a prototype Gulliveriad, it is also a fascinating document in itself. Most of the work is dedicated to lengthy descriptions of the world in the Moon, given veracity through the claim that all of this information has been accrued during the narrator's lengthy sojourn in China, a land which has 'many sorts of Learning which these Parts of the World never heard of'. Defoe's unusual sleight of hand here is to say that in fact, Chinese innovation is due almost exclusively to the writings of Mira-cho-cho-lasmo, an ancient visitor from the moon who instructed them in the 'most exquisite Accomplishments of those Lunar Regions'. According to Gove, after a handful of editions in the first decade of the eighteenth century, this work was not republished except in pamphlet and extract editions until a Tegg version in 1840. Scarce on the market, this is a wonderful work and testament to Defoe's enduring importance to the imaginary voyage. |
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' The Consolidator |
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