Daniel defoe robinson crusoe
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Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731)
Daniel Defoe was born and grew up in turbulent times. On Defoe’s birth, see J. A. Downie’s essay “Defoe’s Birth,” which you can access here. We would like to thank Professor Alan Downie and The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats for their permission to post this essay here. Defoe’s youth was marked by the plague, the great fire of London, a series of wars with the Dutch, and the persecution of Dissenters. His adult life would be equally unstable, particularly where financial matters were concerned. After receiving an education at a dissenting academy, Defoe embarked on a series of mercantile ventures, working with a number of different products, ranging from wine to bricks to hosiery. As Maximillian E. Novak has pointed out, this diversification was typical for a business man in a time of a shifting national economy (Master of Fictions 77). Defoe was also a highly active investor, investing funds in such ventures as the perfume trade and in a diving machine. At times he was highly successful, yet at other po
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Daniel Defoe
17/18th-century English trader, writer and journalist
Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; c. 1660 – 24 April 1731)[1] was an English novelist, journalist, merchant, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations.[2] He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson.[3] Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.
Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works[4]—books, pamphlets, and journals—on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of business journalism[5] and economic journalism.[6]
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Daniel Defoe
An engraving of Daniel Defoe when he was about 43 years old. It was produced by the Flemish engraver Michael Vandergucht, after a painting by Jeremiah Taverner, and used as the frontispiece of Defoe’s 1703 book ‘A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True Born English-man’.
Since the 19th century Daniel Defoe has primarily been remembered as an author, in particular for his novels Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders and Roxana. His original ambition was to be a businessman but following bankruptcy, imprisonment and the pillory he transformed to a lonely and secretive writer of pamphlets and novels and a government spy. A committed Dissenter, he was highly opinionated, and during his lifetime was better-known for several of his satirical pamphlets, which often led him into trouble.
Daniel was the son of James and Alice Foe of the parish of St. Giles in Cripplegate, most likely born in 1660. His father was a tallow chandler and member of the Butchers’ Company in the City of London and Alice died when her son was still young. Da
Daniel Defoe
An engraving of Daniel Defoe when he was about 43 years old. It was produced by the Flemish engraver Michael Vandergucht, after a painting by Jeremiah Taverner, and used as the frontispiece of Defoe’s 1703 book ‘A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True Born English-man’.
Since the 19th century Daniel Defoe has primarily been remembered as an author, in particular for his novels Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders and Roxana. His original ambition was to be a businessman but following bankruptcy, imprisonment and the pillory he transformed to a lonely and secretive writer of pamphlets and novels and a government spy. A committed Dissenter, he was highly opinionated, and during his lifetime was better-known for several of his satirical pamphlets, which often led him into trouble.
Daniel was the son of James and Alice Foe of the parish of St. Giles in Cripplegate, most likely born in 1660. His father was a tallow chandler and member of the Butchers’ Company in the City of London and Alice died when her son was still young. Da
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