Now, Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, was a prolific and multi-talented English writer, journalist, and spy, whose life was as adventurous as his most famous characters. Born Daniel Foe around 1660 in London to a family of Dissenters (Protestants who did not conform to the Church of England), he later added the aristocratic-sounding "De" to his name.
Defoe's early career was far from literary. He was a merchant, dealing in a wide range of goods from hosiery to wine. His business ventures were often precarious, and he experienced several bankruptcies, which gave him a firsthand understanding of economic and social struggles. This period also saw him participate in the failed Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, a political uprising against King James II, which he narrowly escaped punishment for. Later, he became a close ally of King William III and worked as a government agent and spy, particularly during the lead-up to the 1707 Act of Union between England and Scotland. So you have Daniel Defoe going from jail to literary fame.
Defoe's outspoken political pamphlets frequently landed him in hot water. In 1703, he was arrested and sentenced to the pillory for publishing a satirical pamphlet titled The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters, which ironically mimicked the extreme views of those who wanted to persecute his own religious group. While in prison, he wrote "Hymn to the Pillory," a poem that mocked his punishment and gained him public sympathy. After his release, he began his career as a professional writer and journalist, founding and almost single-handedly writing a periodical called The Review for nine years.
Although he wrote hundreds of works on various topics—from politics and economics to crime and history—Defoe is best known today as one of the founders of the English novel. At the age of nearly 60, he published Robinson Crusoe (1719), which was an immediate sensation. Drawing on the real-life story of castaway Alexander Selkirk, Defoe's novel used a detailed, realistic narrative style that helped define a new g his goal was to expose their hypocrisy and bigotry by taking their arguments to the most absurd and logical conclusion that the only enre of fiction. He followed this success with other major works, including Moll Flanders and A Journal of the Plague Year (both 1722). His ability to create compelling, believable characters and stories from the perspective of ordinary, often marginalized, people cemented his place in literary history.
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