1840 HISTORY OF APPARITIONS DANIEL DEFOE LTHER DEVIL!!

THE NOVELS AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF DANIEL DEFOE

THE

HISTORY AND REALITY

OF APPARITIONS

1840; Daniel Defoe; Vol. XIII (Complete in One Volume); Oxford, Printed by D. A. Talboys; Leather; 392 Pages; 4.5"x 6.9"; Very Rare!!

Great for any Fan of the Author of "Gulliver's Travels or Collector.  Excellent Condition for close to 170 Years Old, Highly Collectible Subject Matter!!!

Attributes:

A Beautiful, sleek marble cover design with a rich dark brown morocco leather binding and corners, nice tooling on leather near binding, with five raised bands to the spine and gold labeling, gold tops of pages, attached silk book ribbon, pictorial title page, with facsimile title page of first edition and a great and very interesting read from the Famous Author!!!

Some Contents Included:

OF APPARITIONS IN GENERAL, IN PARTICULAR, FORMER TIMES AND MODERN, OF THE APPEARANCE OF ANGELS IMMEDIATELY IN MISSION AS FROM HEAVEN, OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE DEVIL IN HUMAN SHAPE, OF THE APPARTION OF SPIRITS UNEMBODIED, NOT SUCH AS ARE VULGARLY CALLED GHOSTS,

OF THE APPEARANCE OF DEPARTED UNEMBODIED SOUL, OF THE MANY STRANGE INCONVENIENCES WHICH WOULD ATTEND TO US IF SOULS WERE AT LIBERTY TO VISIT THE EARTH AND TO CONCERN THEMSELVES IN HUMAN AFFAIRS, REALITY OF APPARITIONS AND WHAT SPIRITS THEY ARE THAT DO REALLY APPEAR, OF THE DIFFERENT NATURE OF APPARITIONS, IN DREAMS, OF SHAM APPARITIONS, OF IMAGINARY APPARITIONS OF FANCY VAPOURS WAKING DREAMS DELIRIOUS HEADS AND THE HIPPO, ETC.!!!

Summary:

"Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions. Being An Account of what they are, and what they are not; whence they come, and whence they come not. As also How we may distinguish between the Apparitions of Good and Evil spirits, and how we ought to behave to them." Throughout this he explains his belief that they are not ghosts, they do not revisit, and they certainly do not concern themselves with the affairs of the living.

Defoe firmly suggests in his, "Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions. . ." that, ." . . the unembodied Souls of Men do not appear again, or concern themselves with the Affairs if Life; that the good would not if they could, and the bad could not if they would . . . There is no such thing as any Apparition at all"

Background:

Daniel Defoe (c.1659 – 24 April 1731), born Daniel Foe, was an English writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain, and is even referred to by some as one of the founders of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism.

In 1724 Daniel Defoe published his last novel, Roxana, and began writing works on the occult, including The Political History of the Devil (1726), A System of Magic (1726), and An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions (1727). Maximillian E. Novak has suggested that the meager financial success of Roxana may have led Defoe to abandon fiction (Daniel Defoe 624) and then turn his attention to answering contemporary attacks on orthodox Christianity and the Bible ("Defoe" 94). The shift from novels to treatises appears rather decisive, but critics have suggested possible links between Defoe's novels and his work on the occult. In the view of Richard Titlebaum, Defoe's work on demonology casts "a fascinating light on Defoe's fiction" (6); however, he makes no mention of Roxana. In Realism, Myth, and History in Defoe's Fiction, Novak proposes that Defoe began "toying" with a notion in Roxana he would later develop fully in the Political History--namely, the means by which human beings transform themselves into devils. Even more than Defoe's previous novels, Roxana focuses on the internal state of its protagonist and traces her moral decline (105, 100). David Blewett similarly claims that "the attention paid to the interior drama of moral deterioration" distinguishes Roxana from Defoe's earlier novels, and he examines the "subtle" means by which the devil preys on Roxana's mind, a theme developed by Defoe in the Political History (130, 139). Novak and Blewett point to a central feature of the Political History--the view that hell is more an internal reality than a physical place of fire and brimstone.

"Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The devil always builds a chapel there, And't will be found, upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation" (Defoe, The True-Born Englishman. Part I. Line1). Daniel Defoe was a man of many beliefs, from political to spiritual he was complex in his values. He was roughly a merchant, soldier, factory owner, bankrupt, spy, pamphleteer, convict, journalist, editor, politically disruptive writer, and novelist. However to this day, his life and works are an interesting and remarkable topic for the curious to delve into.

Condition:

Condition is Very Good/Excellent.  Just a little wear to front hinge leather, pages are very good/excellent, text block/hinges are very good/excellent.  Overall, for close to 170 years old its in Very Good/Excellent Condition!!!