History and the early English novel: matters of fact from Bacon to Defoe

1. Baconian historiography: the contours of historical discourse in seventeenth-century England

2. "Idle Trash" or "Reliques of Something True"?: the fate of Brut and Arthur and the power of tradition

3. The History of Myddle: memory, history, and power

4. Lifewriting and historiography, fiction and fact: Baxter, Clarendon, and Hutchinson on the English Civil War

5. The secret history of the last Stuart kings

6. "Knowing strange things": historical discourse in the century before Robinson Crusoe

7. "History" before Defoe: Nashe, Deloney, Behn, Manley

8. Defoe's historical practice: from "The Ages Humbles Servant" to Major Alexander Ramkins

9. "Facts that are form'd to touch the mind": Defoe's narratives as forms of historical discourse

10. From history to the novel: the reception of Defoe.