Daniel Defoe 1660-1731

• Daniel Foe started his career

as a hosier (he sold knitted

wear)

• After some failures he wrote

in The Universal Spectator as

Daniel De Foe

• These writings marked him

as England’s first great

journalist AND the father of

the English novel

• During Foe’s time period the

pamphlet was the most

influential force in political

journalism

• Foe, an ardent Whig, finally

saw some success in

pamphlet-writing and brick-

making UNTIL . . .

• The Tories took the throne

• During this time he wrote The Shortest Way with Dissenters, a mock serious pamphlet describing punishments for nonconformity (1702)

• The Tories were not happy, especially Queen Anne

• After spending seven months in prison, Robert Harley (a moderate Tory) rescued Foe

• Now writing under the more respected name Defoe, he authored the Review

• Defoe now wrote as a Tory,

but did not completely

compromise his Whig beliefs

• He became a man of

moderation

• HOWEVER, times changed

again, and the Whigs were

once more powerful

• Defoe then wrote for both

Whig and Tory periodicals

• But Defoe wrote more than

periodicals

• In 1719, Defoe wrote

Robinson Crusoe

• Defoe claimed his novel was

an allegory of his “would-

have-been” life (if he would

have been smarter/wiser)

• Robinson Crusoe “reports”

the adventures of a

providentially assisted but

self-made man

This type of novel introduced a

new element: journalistic

realism

• Two new techniques that

Defoe used:

1. verisimilitude—the inclusion

of minute, even superfluous,

detail to create an illusion of

actuality

2. first-person narration —

along with rambling narrative

create the idea of a reporter

• appealed to middle-class

Puritans

– semi-autobiographical

– had no worldly associations

• appealed to middle-class

Puritans

– identified with Crusoe’s

resourcefulness and

purpose

• shipwrecked on an island for

28 years

Island Map

• deals with survival,

isolation, and cannibals

• rescued by Spaniards

and returns to England

• How does the story illustrate

verisimilitude?

– efforts at survival

– human weaknesses

• not planning ahead

• misses companionship and

conversation

• What is the moral tone?

submitting

to God’s will

“Thus we never see the true

state of our condition till it is

illustrated to us by its

contraries, nor know how to

value what we enjoy but by

the want of it.”