Anatine
Daniel Defoe Profile

Daniel Defoe
Keynotes

  Born:  Cripplegate, London, c.1661.

  Died:  1731.

  English novelist and journalist, probably best known for his novel, Robinson Crusoe (1719), which is sometimes claimed to be the first ever novel.  Whether the first novelist or not, he was certainly highly influential in shaping the modern novel.

  Daniel Defoe was born in Cripplegate in about 1661.  His father, James Defoe, was a butcher, who had Daniel educated for the Nonconformist ministry.  Despite his education, Daniel started his career as a hosier.

  In 1685 he participated in Monmouth's Rebellion, and in 1688, joined William of Orange's forces.  After the failure of his business, Defoe held a post in the Civil Service from 1695 until 1699.

  Defoe's writing career began with the publication in 1701 of his satirical A True-Born Englishman, which he followed with The Shortest Way with Dissenters (1702), an ironic work for which he was fined, pilloried and imprisoned.  Whilst in Newgate Prison he wrote his Hymn to the Pillory, and started a journal, The Review, which ran from 1704 to 1713.

  Following his release from prison in 1704, Defoe spent some time in Scotland and became a political activist and pamphleteer.

  Daniel Defoe's major success came with the publication of Robinson Crusoe in 1719, a novel written in realistic narrative, based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk (1676 - 1721), who was marooned on an island in the South Pacific for four years.

  Daniel Defoe's total literary output amounted to over 500 novels, stories, pamphlets and journals.

Works with publication dates:

The True-born Englishman (1701)
The Shortest Way with Dissenters (1702)
True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal (1706)
A History of the Union (1709)
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719)
The Serious Reflections... of Robinson Crusoe (1720)
Captain Singleton (1720)
Moll Flanders (1722)
Colonel Jack (1722)
Roxana (1724)
Journal of the Plague Year (1724)
A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724 - 26)

Links

Spartacus - Daniel Defoe
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jdefoe.htm

Guardian Unlimited - Daniel Defoe
http://books.guardian.co.uk/authors/
author/0,5917,-53,00.html

The Millennium Library - Daniel Defoe
http://www.millenniumlibrary.co.uk/millib/reference/
notes.php?entry=Daniel%20Defoe&fromdb=2

 Daniel Defoe - Chronological Notes
http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a811/defoe-01.htm

Daniel 'The True-Born Englishman' Defoe
http://www.incompetech.com/authors/defoe/

A selection of books by Daniel Defoe available from W.H. Smith:
 

Moll Flanders  (hardback)

Robinson Crusoe  (paperback)

Robinson Crusoe  (hardback)

Robinson Crusoe  (hardback)

Life, Adventures, and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton  (paperback)

Captain Singleton  (hardback)

A Journal of the Plague Year  (paperback)

A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain  (paperback)

Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain  (hardback)

Roxana The Fortunate Mistress  (paperback)

Roxana The Fortunate Mistress : Or, A History of the Life and Vast Variety of Fortunes of Mademoiselle De Beleau ...  (paperback)

True-born Englishman and Other Writings  (paperback)

Writings on Travel Discovery and History by Daniel Defoe Part I: vol 1-4

Writings on Travel Discovery and History by Daniel Defoe Part II: vol 5-8

Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe  (paperback)

Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe  (hardback)

General History of the Pyrates

Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

Memoirs of a Cavalier

Memoirs of Captain Carleton

Political and Economic Writings of Daniel Defoe

Satire, Fantasy and Supernatural Writings of Daniel Defoe Vol 1-4