DEFOE, Daniel.

£2,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Consolidator: or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon. First edition of Defoe's early political allegory, his major contribution to early modern lunar literature, and a forerunner of Enlightenment sinophilia.By 1705, Defoe was busy redefining the role of the journalist (with his thrice-weekly Review) and that of the spy (developing intelligence networks on behalf of Robert Harley). This political engagement underpins the allegory in the Consolidator, which focuses on China as the canvas for displaced commentary on the England of Queen Anne. Defoe's China, however, is a fantastically advanced gateway for communication and commerce with civilisations on the Moon. The narrator travels to the moon (on a winged flying machine) and reflects at length on the societies they find there, "perhaps anticipating Gulliver's Travels" (McVeagh, pp. 205-6).

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