Daniel Defoe

Introduction

Daniel Defoe

To say that Daniel Defoe was a survivor is an understatement. He was young and vulnerable when an outbreak of the bubonic plague attacked England, killing hundreds of thousands of people all around him, but he survived. Then in 1666, when Defoe was not yet a teen, the Great Fire of London burned down a large portion of the city, including his entire neighborhood, leaving only his family’s and one neighbor’s houses standing. It’s no wonder, then, that his most famous book, Robinson Crusoe, is filled with taut adventure. Defoe’s novel is a fictional autobiography of Crusoe, who survived twenty-eight years on an island before he was rescued. The novel has remained so popular there is now a real island that bears the hero’s name.

Essential Facts

1. Daniel Defoe is sometimes credited with being the “father” of the English novel. Though that title is endlessly debated by scholars, Defoe undoubtedly did popularize the form with his Robinson Crusoe.
2. Defoe must have written every day of his life in order to publish almost 400 works (books, pamphlets, and journals) on topics that ranged from crime to spiritualism.
3. Defoe was criticized in his time for selling his writing talents to any politician who would pay him. In other words, no one trusted him because he would take any side of an issue for the right price. His critics said he lacked integrity.
4. Defoe was a merchant by trade but was bad with money...so bad that he ended up in debtors’ prison. And in 1703, Defoe was also a political prisoner for criticizing the government. People in the streets drank and cheered as he read poetry from his cell.
5. Defoe often mocked people in power with his writing, so he often resorted to publishing under pseudonyms. The most outlandish pen name he ever used was “Heliostrapolis, secretary to the Emperor of the Moon.”