Daniel defoe (1661–1731) His Life and Work

Daniel Defoe the founder of the early bourgeois realistic novel, was first and foremost a journalist, and in many ways, the father of modem English periodicals. "The Review" which he founded in 1704 and conducted until 1713, is regarded as the first English newspaper. It paved the way for the magazines "The Tatler" and ”The Spectator".

Daniel Defoe was bom in London; in a family of nonconformists (Dissenters). His father, a butcher, was wealthy enough to give his son a good education. Daniel was to become a minister (a priest) in the Nonconformist Church, but when his training was completed, he decided to engage in business as a hosier .It was his cherished desire to become wealthy, but his wish was never fulfilled. Defoe went bankrupt several times. He was always deep in debt. "Thirty times I was rich and poor," he used to say. The only branch of business in which he oroved successful was journalism and literature.

When Defoe was about twenty-three, he started writing pamphlets on questions of the hour.

When the Protestant king, William, Was placed on the throne (1689), Defoe started writing pamphlets praising his policy This was the beginning of Defoe's literary career.. In his "Essay on Projects" Defoe anticipated the greatest public improvements of modem times: higher education for women, the protection of seamen, the construction of highways, and the opening of savings-banks. He urged the establishment of a special academy to study literature and. languages.

Owing to the fact that William III was supported by the Whig party, he was continually attacked by the Tories, who called him Dutch William. Some Tones attacked him in a satirical poem "The Foreigners", in which they declared that the English race should be kept pure. Contending against this idea, Defoe wrote a satire in verse, ''The True-bora Englishman" (1701), in which he proved that true-born Englishmen do not exist, since the English nation consists of Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Normans, and others. He -said: "A true-born Englishman is a contradiction in speech, an irony; in fact, a fiction." Defoe was thanked by the king for this pamphlet.

*During the reign of Queen Anne (1702–1714), persecution of the Dissenters began again, as in the reign of James II. Defoe wrote a pamphlet in defence of the Dissenters, entitled "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters" (1702), in which he attacked the Tones and the established Church. But the irony was so subtle that the enemy did not understand it at first: they believed Defoe when he said that the Dissenters should be "captured arid tortured and burnt". They admired the pamphlet and considered it to be next best to the Bible. But as soon as they realized the real character of the pamphlet.pefoe was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and in order to disgrace him, the Tories subjected him to a cruel punrthment: he had to stand in the pillory on a public square with his hands and head in stocks.. Before this he had written his "Hymn to the Pillory", in which he criticized the law and demanded a fair trial "The Hymn was not published, but his friends made it popular, and it had tremendous success with the people. It was sung in the streets on the day Defoe was put in the pillory! People gathered round him and cheered him while he stood there, women threw flowers to him, and when the time came for him to be set free, people carried him from the square on their shoulders. This was me climax of his political career and he end of it.

Later, he became editor of a magazine which supported his former enemies, the Tories. Defoe, like many other journalists of the day. served the Tories as well as the Whigs. This should not be accepted as a change of principle: though party strife was very bitter, there were no serious contradictions between the two parties at that time. When the Whigs came to power after the death of Queen Anne, Defoe began to serve the Whigs again.

In 1719, he tried his hand at another kind of literature – fiction, and wrote the novel he is now best known by. "The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. After the book was published, Defoe became famous and rich and was able to pay his creditors in full. Now he wrote for four public magazines and received a regular sum of money from the government.

Other novels which Defoe wrote were also very much talked about during his lifetime, but we do not hear much about them now. Defoe published "The Life of Captain Singleton" in 1720, "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders" in 1721, "The History of Colonel Jack" in 1722, and "A History of the Lady Roxana" in 1724.

In 1729, while at work on a book which was to be entitled 'The Complete English Gentleman", Defoe fell ill and in two years time he died.

“ROBINSON CRUSOE”

Books about voyages and new discoveries were exceedingly popular in the first quarter of the 18th century. A true story that was described in one of Steele's magazines, 'The Englishman", attracted Defoe's attention. It was about Alexander Selkirk a Scottish sailor, who had quarrelled with his captain and was put ashore on a desert island near South America where he lived quite alone for four years and four months. In 1709 he was picked up by a passing vessel. Selkirk's story interested Defoe so much that he decided to use it for a book. However, he made his hero, Robinson Crusoe, spend twenty-six years on a desert island.

At the beginning of the story the hero is an unexperienced youth, a rather light-minded boy, who develops into a strong-willed man, able to withstand all the calamities of his unusual destiny. Being cast ashore on a desert island after the shipwreck, alone and defenceless, Crusoe tried to be reasonable in order to master his despondency (loss of hope and courage). He knew that he must not give way to self-pity or fear, or to lose himself in mourning for his lost companions.

Robinson Crusoc's most characteristic trait is his optimism. His guiding principle in life became "never say die" and "in trouble to be troubled is to have your troubles doubled". Sometimes of course, especially during earthquakes or when he was ill, panic and anxiety overtook him, but never for long. He has confidence in himself and in man. and believes it is within the power of man to overcome all difficulties and hardships. Another of Crusoe's good qualities which saves him from despair, is his ability to put his whole heart into everything he does. He is an enthusiastic worker and always hopes for the best. He began to keep a journal of his life as soon as he got a pen and ink to write with. This too is a sign of Crusoe's courageous optimism.