Daniel Defoe
(1660–1731)

Although Daniel Defoe produced an impressive number of pamphlets, essays, and poems throughout his life, he was nearly 60 years old before he began writing the novels that established him as a writer of genius. Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, a book that recounts the mostly imaginary adventures of a real person, marked the beginning of the modern English novel. Defoe's realistic, almost documentary narrative of a man marooned on a desert island was something new in English literature. It established a genre.

Defoe's life was an odd mixture of business, politics, religion, and journalism. Born to a middle class family named Foe (he added the "De" later), Defoe attended a school run by the Dissenters—a loosely knit group that refused to accept the principles set down by the Church of England. He considered entering the Presbyterian ministry but instead turned his attention to commerce. He invested heavily, and not always well, in a variety of ventures—a ship, diving bells, wines, civet cats. The scope of his activities is shown by the size of his debt. When he declared bankruptcy in 1692, he owed his creditors 17,000 pounds.

At that point, he turned to writing (and to patrons for his writing) to try to improve his fortunes. His pen, however, also got him into trouble. After enjoying brief success with The True-Born Englishman (1701),—a defense of King William III against his detractors—he wrote an ill-advised satire, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702), which landed him in jail and in the pillory. Published anonymously, this pamphlet condemned the very religious group Defoe favored. Its irony amused neither the Dissenters nor members of the Church of England, but Defoe had enough popularity to attract cheering supporters rather than rock throwers at his pillory appearance.

Late in his life, Defoe turned to writing books that purported to be memoirs, among them Robin Crusoe (1709) and Moll Flanders (1722). As published, these books were not novels in the strict sense, since they were sold as nonfiction. Although Defoe has been accused "of forging the story, and imposing it on the world of truth," these books are generally regarded as novels today—outstanding novels at that.

Defoe's journalistic talents served him well in writing A Journal of the Plague Year (1722). He studied official documents, interviewed survivors of the plague, and may have drawn upon his own memories as a young child. The vivid historical recreation of the plague is a triumph of Defoe's energetic, detailed style in a genre that set English fiction upon a new path.

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