Defoe and Satire

Abstract This chapter examines Daniel Defoe’s satirical output. It demonstrates the importance of satire in Defoe’s literary career and suggests that he was often a less conventional satirist than most scholars have assumed. Firstly, the chapter explores Defoe’s writings about satire: how it ought to be written and what it might accomplish. It then focuses on the strategies of ‘reform’ that Defoe embedded in his satirical writing, including texts such as The True-Born Englishman (1700/1) and Jure Divino (1706). The final section turns away from poetry to examine Defoe’s reputation as an author of libellous pamphlets, focusing on the fallout from the publication of The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters in 1702.