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This well-written and exceptionally interesting book is in effect three books in one: firstly, a detailed account of the life of Daniel Defoe; secondly, a psychoanalytic profile of Defoe; thirdly, episodes from Leo Abse's long distinguished career as a lawyer, as a politician. In his political life as a Member of Parliament Abse was responsible for introducing significant reforms: ending the criminality of private homosexual conduct between consenting adults and decriminalizing suicide, finally ending capital punishment. We are offered psychodynamic profiles of his fellow Members of the Commons which will be referred to below.
The singular life of Daniel Defoe: ‘The first and perhaps the greatest novelist in English, one of the most influential architects of the British national consciousness; fraudster, compulsive risk-taker, con man, dubious business-man, hired pen, early feminist, sophisticated marriage counsellor, the first management consultant, memorable travel-writer, spy, double agent, a major influence in the shaping of the office of Prime Minister, great journalist, inveterate fantasist’ (pp. 2-3). So much for the author who is known mostly for the adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
Abse sets Defoe in the context of the social, sexual and political life of England in the late seventeenth century until his sad lonely death in 1731. He lived through the time of the glorious revolution when James II was dethroned and replaced by William of Orange whom Defoe idealized as a Protestant hero.
The book's title is The Bi-sexuality of Daniel Defoe. Abse outlines and pursues his thesis vigorously. Defoe's mother died when he was 11; he was the only son and had two older sisters. From the little we know of his mother she was a severe, unapproachable woman who did not intercede for him over the punishment imposed by his strict Protestant father. The psycho-dynamic thread that Abse draws for Defoe's extraordinarily creative and restless life is that of the negative Oedipus com