Professor Sutherland’s second, critical, volume on Defoe comes a generation after his “Defoe” of 1937, which was primarily a biographical study. The earlier volume has remained, in spite of minor corrections, additions, and elaborations, the most satisfying introduction to what may be the most dramatic life in English literary history. This volume will serve the general reader and student as an equally sound and absorbing introductory account of Defoe’s varied achievement as a writer. Following a biographical prologue, Mr. Sutherland treats the journalism, the poetry, the major fictions, and the most influential writings of his last years. Given the irremediable problems of selection which confront the critic wishing to present extensive and representative aspects of Defoe’s output, Mr. Sutherland’s choices are admirable and judicious.