Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)

Major works in fiction:
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Moll Flanders (1722)
A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
Roxana (1724)

Biographical notes

Defoe led a full, productive, interesting life. Son of James Foe, a candle-maker, Defoe was educated for the Protestant ministry, but by his marriage in 1684 he was established as a hosiery merchant. Sometime around 1695 Daniel added the "De" to his family name—often seen as indicative of his desire for upward social mobility. Defoe is very much representative of the new 18th-century British middle class: his writings are grounded in middle class sensibilities and concerns, and they were intended mainly for a like-minded middle class audience.

Defoe's fortunes in politics and in several business ventures had cycles of extreme highs and lows. He was in and out of debt, he was accused of dishonesty in business, he was an earnest man who worked hard and long all his life, he traveled Europe extensively, he was pilloried and twice imprisoned for offending the government, he participated in armed rebellion, he switched party allegiances and worked as a propagandist and secret agent paid to identify disloyal citizens from 1703-1714.

Through all his various occupations, Defoe was first and foremost a prolific and very successful journalist and writer of pamphlets and books on subjects ranging from politics to morality to genteel conduct in the bedroom to travel and geography to economics—Defoe wrote seemingly about everything. In all, Defoe is credited with writing more than 550 published books, journals, and pamphlets.

Defoe's importance in literary history

Though Defoe's contribution to the novel was sometimes downplayed in the 18th and 19th centuries, 20th-century literary historians and critics came to recognize Defoe as one of the most important founding fathers (or "primary parents") of the modern novel.

Defoe's most important contributions to the development of fiction include especially:

Realistic detail in external, physical description and attention to realism in presentation. None of Defoe's fiction bore his name on the title page: all his "novels" were presented to and sometimes received by the public as real-life autobiographies of the main characters.

Plain, non-literary prose, considered eminently readable in his time.

The writer's effective projection of himself with vivid, convincing imagination into the various protagonists who narrate their respective fictional "autobiographies."

Some consider Defoe the first English novelist—whether or not his fictions were novels, his innovations in fiction do certainly make him a giant in the history of the novel.

Characteristics of the fiction

Evidently written in haste—the flaws and inconsistencies are often noted as ostensibly realistic weaknesses in the writing styles of his fictional "autobiographer/protagonists."

Pointedly intended as moralistic propaganda: there is some debate whether his moral preachings were heartfelt, or whether Defoe made his works blatantly "instructional" so they would be socially acceptable (and therefore publishable) in an era when fiction was considered immoral. Defoe was a devout Puritan, but he was also a crafty businessman. Most of Defoe's fiction is highly sensational and/or topical—travel narratives such as Robinson Crusoe's and "criminal confessions" such as Moll Flanders's were much in vogue in the early 18th century. The earnestness of his nonfiction moral writings may suggest that Defoe's moral intent in the fiction was also in earnest.

Usually episodic—Defoe's "autobiographies" often lack the narrative coherence we expect in modern novels. He offers series of adventures—episodes—that are unified more by their common subject—i.e. the life story of the main character—than by apparently conscious artistic design. Typically, episodes of narrative are punctuated with passages of moral or practical instruction.

Some see Defoe's protagonists as psychologically thin—usually the reader learns more about actions and circumstantial predicaments than internal feelings and reactions.

A few themes, motifs, and features to consider as you read Moll Flanders

Different types and aspects of realism—from the title page, to detailed description, to the fascinating underbelly of a rising criminal class.

As picaresque fiction, detailing the life of a rogue-figure on the margins of society—but is Defoe's intent satirical criticism? Anti-commercial criticism?

Defoe's purpose: moral vs. sensational.

Moll's motivation: fear of poverty vs. desire for adventure and the good life.

The importance of money, a new middle class concern.

Moll as survivor—do we admire her?

Isolation and "economic individualism."

Moll's femininity and masculinity.