The style & technique of DANIEL DEFOE
Tony Rossiter looks at a writer who has been described as the first true novelist
He was a prolific and versatile writer, best known for the seven novels he wrote late in his career. Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, marked the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre.
Beginnings
Daniel Foe (he later added the aristocratic-sounding ‘De’) was born in London, probably in 1660, the son of a prosperous tallow chandler and Presbyterian dissenter. As a teenager he attended a dissenting academy at Newington Green, London, before entering into business as a general merchant. As a businessman he had his ups and downs: he was able to buy a country estate, yet was often in debt and was forced into bankruptcy in 1692.
From the 1690s he also worked as a journalist. His first notable publication, An Essay upon Projects (1697), was a series of proposals for economic and social improvement, and over the next twenty years he became a pioneer of business and economic journalism. He wrote numerous pamphlets and political tracts (he was often in trouble with the authorities) and published essays and books on diverse subjects including religion, crime and marriage. A Puritan dissenter, much of his writing bore the mark of his strong religious beliefs. During his seventy years he produced at least 250 works. Only in his late fifties did he turn to writing fiction.