1. Daniel
The father of English novel
Defoe
(De)Foe
1
Francesco Mennella-Classe IV i
2. Life and early career:
• He was born in 1660.
• He studied to be a Presbyterian minister
He abandoned the studies
afterwards and entered in
business as a trader.
Hosiery Woolen
goods
Wine
• In 1684 he marries
Mary Tuffley Dowry of £3,700
Eight children
• In 1692→arrested for debts→bankruptcy
↓
(£17,000) 2
Francesco Mennella-Classe IV i
3. • Simple characters.
• Realistic misfortunes.
Writing career:
• Interest in politics
• Lots of travels
Journalist
Writer
Pamphlets “The Review”
[1704-1713]
• Commerce
• Politics
• Religion
• Morals.
Father of English
novel.
Narrator: 1st person
Identification with the
protagonist
Role of moral
Bad characters
who redeem to
good
Pillory (1703)
The True-Born Englishman
3
4. Late years and death
• He writes conduct manuals:
– The Complete English Tradesman (1726)
– The New Family Instructor (1727)
– The Political History Of The Devil (1726)
– A General History of Discoveries and
Improvements (1727)
– A tour thro’ the whole island of Great Britain
[1724-1727]
• He dies on April 24th, 1731 in poverty
4
Francesco Mennella-Classe IV i
Editor's Notes
Daniel Defoe’s works are a very important piece of English literature. Not only for his worldly known novel robinson crusoe, but also for many others novels written by him and a wide range of articles published in “The review”. Before starting, we have to clarify the name of this author: although he is known as Daniel Defoe, his original surname was Foe. He later changed it by adding the aristocratic prefix “De”.
Born (maybe) in 1660, Defoe lives his childhood between Presbyterianism dissent, as his parents were part of the movements that worshipped separately from the Church of England. Because of this, he went to the dissenting church of London. After some time, however, he decided to interrupt the clerical studies and to enter in business as a general merchant. The products he moved were really profitable and successful and he managed to buy an estate ad a ship. Anyway, he had rarely been out of debt. On January 1 of 1684 he married Mary Tuffley, the daughter of a London merchant carrying with herself a huge amount of money as dowry! With her, Daniel had eight children, two of which couldn’t see the light. This spiral of good, though, ends in 1692, when he’s arrested for an amount of 17,000£, declaring bankruptcy.
Defoe had always been very interested in his century’s politics and he loved travelling. These two factors let his writing vein out. He became a journalist, writing a wide range of pamphlets (most of the times satirical ones).The magazine he founded in 1704, “the review”, had a big audience and it kept being published twice a week until 1713. In this periodical, Defoe wrote about plenty of themes, including some of his most famous political documents. Some of his political writings sent him to the pillory in 1703, when Queen Anne replaced William III on England’s throne. She didn’t accept also his pamphlet “the true born Englishman”, which Defoe wrote for William III. As for his writing career, Defoe’s known as the father of English novel. His novels feature the role of moral, for example. In novels like Roxana or Moll Flanders, we can detect the presence of a bad protagonist who gradually turns good following Defoe’s society’s moral and ethic. Most of the times, Defoe wrote placing the narrator in first person, so that the reader could fully dive into the plot and identify himself with the main character. In novels like Robinson Crusoe, Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders the characters are simple and live realistic, possible adventures. The third aspect of Foe’s writing is the language. He’s one of the first novelists who communicated with a simple language, aiming to expand the entertainment of reading to the middle class.
During his last years, Defoe changed his way of writing, publishing conduct manuals, many of which tell the reader about new discoveries and about ways to behave. We can also easily see Defoe’s past as a tradesman in some of his manuals. Despite his brilliant career, Daniel Defoe dies in poverty in 1731.
