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Daniel Defoe
Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731), English novelist and journalist, whose
work reflects his diverse experiences in many countries and in many walks of
life. Besides being a brilliant journalist, novelist, and social thinker, Defoe
was a prolific author, producing more than 500 books, pamphlets, and tracts.
Defoe was born in London about 1660, the son of a candle merchant named Foe.
Daniel added "De" to his name about 1700. He was educated for the
Presbyterian ministry but decided in 1685 to go into business. He became a
hosiery merchant, and his business gave him frequent opportunities to travel
throughout western Europe.
An opponent of the Roman Catholic King James II, in 1685 Defoe took an active
part in the unsuccessful rebellion led by the Duke of Monmouth against the king.
In 1692 his business went into bankruptcy, but subsequently he acquired control
of a tile and brick factory. He obtained a government post in 1695 and the same
year wrote An Essay upon Projects, a remarkably keen analysis of matters of
public concern, such as the education of women. Especially noteworthy among his
writings during the next several years was the satiric poem The True-born
Englishman (1701), an attack on beliefs in racial or national superiority, which
was directed particularly toward those English people who resented the new king,
William III, because he was Dutch.
The following year Defoe anonymously published a tract entitled The Shortest Way
with the Dissenters, which satirized religious intolerance by pretending to
share the prejudices of the Anglican church against Nonconformists. In 1703,
when it was found that Defoe had written the tract, he was arrested and given an
indeterminate term in jail. Robert Harley, the speaker of the House of Commons,
secured his release in November 1703, probably on the condition that he agree to
become a secret agent and public propagandist for the government.
During his imprisonment Defoe's business had been ruined, so he turned to
journalism for his livelihood. From 1704 to 1713 he issued a triweekly news
journal entitled The Review, for which he did most of the writing. Its opinions
and interpretations were often independent, but generally, The Review leaned
toward the government in power. Defoe wrote strongly in favor of union with
Scotland, and his duties as secret agent may have entailed other activities on
behalf of union, which was achieved in 1707. In 1709 he wrote a History of the
Union.
Defoe's first and most famous novel, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,
appeared in 1719, when he was almost 60 years old. A fictional tale of a
shipwrecked sailor, it was based on the adventures of a seaman, Alexander
Selkirk, who had been marooned on one of the Juan Fernandez Islands off the
coast of Chile. The novel, full of detail about Crusoe's ingenious attempts to
overcome the hardships of the island, has become one of the classics of
children's literature. More novels followed, including Memoirs of a Cavalier
(1720), Captain Singleton (1720), and The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll
Flanders (1722), the adventures of a London prostitute, which is regarded as one
of the great English novels. Among his other important writings are A Journal of
the Plague Year (1722), Colonel Jack (1722), Roxana (1724), A Tour Through the
Whole Island of Great Britain (1724-1727), A General History of the Pirates
(1724-1728), and The Complete English Tradesman (1725-1727).
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