Daniel Defoe Themes Biography Works InfluenceImpact Biography 1660

Daniel Defoe

Themes • Biography • Works • Influence/Impact

Biography • 1660 born in London as Daniel Foe • 1682 he became a merchant • 1684 married Mary Tuffley • 1685 fighting in the Duke of Monmouth‘s rebellion against James II. • 1688 ‘Glorious Revolution‘, William III. became king

Biography • 1692 went bankrupt • 1702 ‘The Shortest way with the Dissenters‘ • 1703 put in the pillory and then to Newgate Prison

Biography • worked as a secret agent for Robert Harley and as a political journalist • 1704 ‘The Review‘, newspaper until 1713 • 1719 started writing novels • 1731 died because of a stroke

Works Robinson Crusoe • first published in 1719 • story of a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote island • inspiration: sailor Alexander Selkirk • adapted into many movies

Works Moll Flanders • was written 1722 (novel) • about the fall and redemption of a woman A Journal of the Plague Year • first published in 1722 • about a man‘s experience of the plague in 1665 in London

Further works • The True-Born Englishman (1701) • The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe • Captain Singleton (1720) • Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe • Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720) • Captain Jack (1722) • The Fortunate Mistress / Roxana (1724)

Influence • „father of journalism“ • helped to unify England Scotland • Defoe is considered to be the founder of realistic English novels using simple prose