An Essay Upon Projects

Daniel DefoeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 279K words
Chapters: 28

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.An Essay Upon Projects by Daniel DefoeAuthor: Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: May 1, 2003

Editor's review

An Essay Upon Projects is a set of proposals for social improvement written by Defoe in the early eighteenth century, touching on banking, insurance, road construction, old-age savings, the confinement of the mentally ill, women's education, and other fields, and showing a merchant-writer's systematic thinking about practical problems. Unlike the narrative appeal of Robinson Crusoe, this book's value lies in intellectual history: it records how an early modern Englishman used rational calculation and practical experience to plan public affairs, and many of its proposals later became reality in different forms. The style is expository, clearly organized but lacking in story, with frequent repetition and elaboration between paragraphs, so readers need to approach it with questions in mind. For readers studying Defoe, the English Enlightenment, or early modern social and economic institutions, it is direct and interesting primary material; for those who only want to read fiction, it may seem dry. The Project Gutenberg edition is an English-language ebook of the original text, convenient for locating specific proposals.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars studying Defoe's thought and social improvement schemes of the English Enlightenment
Readers interested in the origins of modern institutions such as banking, insurance, and public works
Researchers in literature and history needing eighteenth-century English expository prose and intellectual-history material
English-language readers accustomed to reading works of ideas and receptive to expository writing

Not a good fit for

Readers of Defoe's fiction expecting a narrative like Robinson Crusoe
Academic beginners seeking a systematic theoretical framework rather than specific proposals
Beginning readers unfamiliar with eighteenth-century English expository prose

Reading tips

Begin by browsing the table of contents and read by section according to the areas you care about (such as finance, education, or public works).
While reading, note the correspondences between Defoe's proposals and later institutions to form lines of inquiry.
Use background material on eighteenth-century British social history to understand the practical relevance of the proposals.
There is no need to read the whole book; it is more efficient to use it as a searchable collection of proposals.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel?

No. It is Defoe's collection of expository essays built around a series of proposals for social improvement; the style is close to proposals and political tracts, different in nature from narrative works such as Robinson Crusoe, so reading expectations should be adjusted accordingly.

Were the proposals in the book later realized?

Some ideas touched on in the book, such as savings for old age, insurance, and improvements to roads and public works, appeared later in different forms, but the evolution of specific institutions is complex and cannot simply be regarded as directly brought about by this book. When reading, treat the proposals as samples of the thinking of their time rather than precise institutional blueprints.

Why is it said to be suitable as intellectual-history material?

Because it concentrates on how an early modern merchant-writer used rational calculation and practical experience to deal with public affairs, covering fields such as finance, education, and welfare, and reflects the vocabulary and lines of thought of social-improvement discourse of the time, offering reference value for studying the history of ideas in the Enlightenment period.

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About the author

Daniel Defoe Author · British · 1660–1731

Daniel Defoe (1661?–1731) was an English novelist, political writer and journalist, and a founding figure of realist fiction in the English Enlightenment. His birth year is recorded variously; the library lists 1660, and he died in 1731. A prolific author, he is represented here by 59 works, the best known being Robinson Crusoe, alongside Moll Flanders and A Journal of the Plague Year. His novels often follow individual fortunes and adventures, written in a plain, concrete and realistic style that presents characters' circumstances and choices in unadorned narrative, and his influence on the development of English realist fiction is far-reaching. Commonly classified under inspirational growth, his works are still read today as important accounts of endurance and self-reliance.