Search Results: A Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse Of the M… by Daniel Defoe

Independently published, 2017. Paperback. New. 107 pages. 11.00x8.50x0.27 inches.

New.

Paperback / softback. New.

Hardback. New.

London: printed for T. Warner,, 1727. First edition, with a facsimile title page. The fullest expression of Defoe's thoughts on marriage, the treatise argues against abortion and contraception. The book was first published as Conjugal Lewdness; contemporary critics attacked the original title, and the book was reissued with a cancel title page bearing a new, more polite, title: A Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed. The facsimile title page bound in this copy is photocopied from the second issue. Although Conjugal Lewdness was published anonymously, there is no debate as to Defoe's authorship of it. It was one of a series of practical divinity or domestic conduct books in which he employed innovative and recognisably novelistic techniques. "Although the dialogue form had been used in conduct books before, Defoe's was highly original in its leisurely creation of characters, relationships, and stories. Most conduct books were composed of brief essays, summary 'morals', and lists… Read More