The Political History of the Devil is a 1726 book by Daniel Defoe.
General scholarly opinion is that Defoe really did think of the Devil as a participant in world history. He spends some time discussing John Milton's Paradise Lost and explaining why he considers it inaccurate.
His view is that of an 18th-century Presbyterian – he blames the Devil for the Crusades and sees him as close to Europe's Catholic powers. This expresses Defoe's anti-Catholicism. The book was banned by the Roman Catholic Church.
Trivia
The book is listed as one belonging to Mr. Tulliver and read by his daughter Maggie in George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss.
See also
References
- McInelly, Brett (Autumn 2006). The Political History of the Devil. Textual Cultures, 1(2): 175–177.(subscription required)
- "BFE – Censored publications – Search result". Archived from the original on 13 July 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - The Mill on the Floss: Book one chapter 3; Mr Riley Gives his Advice
Further reading
- Baine, Rodney M. (1962). Daniel Defoe and "The History and Reality of Apparitions". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 106(4): 335–347. (subscription required)
- Hudson, Nicholas (1988). 'Why God no Kill the Devil?' The Diabolical Disruption of Order in Robinson Crusoe. The Review of English Studies, 39(156): 494–501. (subscription required)
External links
- Online at Archive.org
The History of the Devil public domain audiobook at LibriVox- Literary Encyclopedia entry
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