Defoe, Daniel

Defoe, Daniel (c. 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 the fashionable “De” to his name in about 1700. He was educated for the Presbyterian ministry but decided instead 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 subsequently wrote “An Essay Upon Projects” (1697), 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, A Satyr” (1701), an attack on beliefs in racial or national superiority, which was directed particularly towards 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 for seditious libel. 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 and again he faced serious financial losses, 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 towards the government in power. Defoe wrote strongly in favour of union with Scotland, and his duties as a 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. During this period he also published “The True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs Veal” (1706), a popular ghost story.

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, is widely regarded as one of the first English novels. He wrote sequels, The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and The Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, and more novels including Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720) and Captain Singleton (1720). The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (1722) retells the adventures of a London prostitute, and is one of the great early English novels. It is in this last work that Defoe displayed his insight into human nature and his interest in motives for certain courses of action. He also showed his concern for those suffering from poverty. 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), and A General History of the Pirates (1724-1728). Defoe was also the author of a number of treatises or books of moral advice, including The Complete English Tradesman (1726) and The Complete English Gentleman (1728-1729), which offered wise sayings such as “Pleasure is a thief to business” and “We must distinguish between a man of polite learning and a mere scholar: the first is a gentleman and what a gentleman should be; the last is a mere book-case, a bundle of letters, a head stuffed with the jargon of languages, a man that understands every body but is understood by no body”.