Defoe's era saw much popular interest in the instructional handbook and behaviour manual. Forming a highly significant part of his own oeuvre, Defoe adopted this style of literature with great effect, allowing him to explore fully some of his more cherished - and sometimes salacious - subjects: religion, immorality, sexual intrigue, social order, education and the duties and responsibilities of a merchant. Earlier protagonists such as Isaak Walton (Compleat Angler) and Henry Peacham (The Compleat Gentleman) produced works - at least in their titles - that Defoe would later rec.