Directory
References
The Shortest-Way With the Dissenters
pamphlet by Defoe
Learn about this topic in these articles:
discussed in biography
- In Daniel Defoe: Mature life and works.
…of all his pamphlets, “The Shortest-Way With The Dissenters” (1702), published anonymously. His method was ironic: to discredit the highfliers by writing as if from their viewpoint but reducing their arguments to absurdity. The pamphlet had a huge sale, but the irony blew up in Defoe’s face: Dissenters and High…
Read More
place in English literature
- In English literature: Publication of political literature
…one of Defoe’s anonymous works, The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters (1702), so brilliantly sustained its impersonation of a High Church extremist, its supposed narrator, that it was at first mistaken for the real thing. Anonymity was to be an important creative resource for Defoe in his novels and for Swift…
Read More