An Essay Upon Projects

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Daniel Defoe was a writer, journalist and spy. He was one of the first authors to write a novel. In An Essay Upon Projects Defoe defines the word project and enlarges on the concept including looking at the economic ramifications of several projects he was personally familiar with. The Introduction sums up this first work by Defoe as follows. "It is practical in the highest degree, while running over with fresh speculation that seeks everywhere the well-being of society by growth of material and moral power. There is a wonderful fertility of mind, and almost whimsical precision of detail, with good sense and good humour to form the groundwork of a happy English style. Defoe in this book ran again and again into sound suggestions that first came to be realised long after he was dead. Upon one subject, indeed, the education of women, we have only just now caught him up. Defoe wrote the book in 1692 or 1693, when his age was a year or two over thirty, and he published it in 1697."