Michael Prince argues that Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe contains a thickly veiled satire aimed at specifically one person, and that for over 300 years, scholars have missed it. There seems to be several reasons for this oversight, but four primary ones are: the overwhelming amount of information that scholars must sift through (including commentaries by his enemies), Defoe's use of Deism as a narrative cover, the evolution of his writing technique, and the development of the novel. Prince's book is reminiscent of a mystery novel that begins by setting up the crime, and then follows the detective sussing out the culprit through a series of questions that build to the proof.
Chapter 1, “The Puzzle and a Clue,” starts not with who Defoe's target was, but with the question, “How did this happen?” How have scholars missed this pointed attack? His answer: too much information has obscured this search. Prince...
