Bernard Mandeville’s “A Modest Defence of Publick Stews”

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

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2. Introduction

   • Irwin Primer

   Pages 1-190

3. Back Matter

   Pages 191-208

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In this study of Bernard Mandeville's A Modest Defence of Publick Stews , Irwin Primer breaks new ground by arguing that in addition to being an advocation for the establishment of state-regulated houses of prostitution, Mandeville's writing is also a highly polished work of literature.

• bibliography
• edition
• England
• English literature
• knowledge
• literature
• morality
• oral discourse
• Polis
• present
• society
• translation
• writing

"With the publication of his splendid new edition (and study) of Mandeville's notorious A Modest Defence of Publick Stews, the charming and erudite Primer makes a statement about the hidden core of eighteenth-century studies. With a surgical precision and a surgical wit befitting the puckish physician from Leyden, Primer thoroughly reviews Mandeville's contexts, sources, and ideas while also explaining the dark ambiguities and light wit that shimmer throughout this strangely direct, alarmingly commonsensical work. Primer's lovingly prepared text should easily become a standard scholarly edition." - Kevin L. Cope, Louisiana State University

"Irwin Primer's book provides more than welcome annotated texts of A Modest Defence of Publick Stews (both editions of 1724). It is valuable also for the inclusion of other relevant Eighteenth Century texts and especially for Primer's introduction and commentaries on literary, economic, and social aspects of its subject." - Maurice Goldsmith, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

IRWIN PRIMER is Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University, USA.

Policies and ethics