Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe (1661-1731). Portrait by Michael Van der Gucht (1706). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Daniel Defoe
Born	c.1659–1661
Died	24 April 1731
Occupation	writer, journalist, merchant
Genres	Adventure
Influenced Johann Wyss, Jonathan Swift, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf

Daniel Defoe (?1659–1661 - 24 April 1731) was an English poet, trader, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe.

Life

Overview

Defoe was the son of a butcher in St. Giles, where he was born. His father being a Dissenter, he was educated at a Dissenting college at Newington with the view of becoming a Presbyterian minister. He joined the army of Monmouth, and on its defeat was fortunate enough to escape punishment. In 1688 he joined William III. Before settling down to his career as a political writer, Defoe had been engaged in various enterprises as a hosier, a merchant-adventurer to Spain and Portugal, and a brickmaker, all of which proved so unsuccessful that he had to fly from his creditors. Having become known to the government as an effective writer, and employed by them, he was appointed Accountant in the Glass-Duty Office, 1659-1699. Among his more important political writings are an Essay on Projects (1698), and The True-born Englishman (1701), which had a remarkable success. In 1702 appeared The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, written in a strain of grave irony which was, unfortunately for the author, misunderstood, and led to his being fined, imprisoned, and put in the pillory, which suggested his Hymns to the Pillory (1704). Notwithstanding, Defoe's knowledge of commercial affairs and practical ability were recognized by his being sent in 1706 to Scotland to aid in the Union negotiations. Further misunderstandings and disappointments in connection with political matters led to his giving up this line of activity, and, fortunately for posterity, taking to fiction. The first and greatest of his novels, Robinson Crusoe, appeared in 1719, and its sequel (of greatly inferior interest) in 1720. In all he published, including pamphlets, etc., about 250 works. All Defoe's writings are distinguished by a clear, nervous style, and his works of fiction by a minute verisimilitude and naturalness of incident which has never been equalled except perhaps by Swift, whose genius his, in some other respects, resembled. The only description of his personal appearance is given in an advertisement intended to lead to his apprehension, and runs, "A middle-sized, spare man about 40 years old, of a brown complexion, and dark brown-coloured hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth." His mind was a peculiar amalgam of imagination and matter-of-fact, seeing strongly and clearly what he did see, but little conscious, apparently, of what lay outside his purview.

Youth, education, marriage

Defoe was born Daniel Foe in the parish of St Giles, Cripplegate, London, in the latter part of 1659 or early in 1660, of a nonconformist family. His grandfather, Daniel Foe, lived at Etton, Northamptonshire, apparently in comfortable circumstances, for he is said to have kept a pack of hounds. As to the variation of name, Defoe or Foe, its owner signed either indifferently till late in life, and where his initials occur they are sometimes D.F. and sometimes D.D.F. 3 autograph letters of his are extant, all addressed in 1705 to the same person, and signed respectively D. Foe, de Foe and Daniel Defoe.

His father, James Foe, was a butcher and a citizen of London. His mother, Annie, died by the time he was about 10.

Daniel Foe was well educated at a famous dissenting academy, Charles Morton’s of Stoke Newington, where many of the best-known nonconformists of the time were his schoolfellows.

On 1 January 1684, Defoe married Mary Tuffley at St Botolph's, Aldgate. She was the daughter of a London merchant, receiving a dowry of £3,700—a huge amount by the standards of the day. With his debts and political difficulties, the marriage may have been troubled, but it lasted 47 years and produced 8 children.

Early career

With few exceptions all the known events of Defoe’s life are connected with authorship. In the older catalogues of his works 2 pamphlets, Speculum Crapegownorum, a satire on the clergy, and A Treatise against the Turks, are attributed to him before the accession of James II, but there seems to be no publication of his which is certainly genuine before The Character of Dr Annesley (1697). He had, however, before this, taken up arms in Monmouth’s expedition, and is supposed to have owed his lucky escape from the clutches of the king’s troops and the law, to his being a Londoner, and therefore a stranger in the west country.

On 26 January 1688 he was admitted a liveryman of the city of London, having claimed his freedom by birth. Before his western escapade he had taken up the business of hosiery factor. At the entry of William and Mary into London he is said to have served as a volunteer trooper “gallantly mounted and richly accoutred.” In those days he lived at Tooting, and was instrumental in forming a dissenting congregation there.

His business operations at this period appear to have been extensive and various. He seems to have been a sort of commission merchant, especially in Spanish and Portuguese goods, and at some time to have visited Spain on business. In 1692 his business failed for £17,000. His misfortunes made him write both feelingly and forcibly on the bankruptcy laws; and although his creditors accepted a percentage, he afterwards honorably paid them in full, a fact attested by independent and not very friendly witnesses.

Subsequently, he undertook the secretaryship and then the management and chief ownership of some tile-works at Tilbury, but here also he was unfortunate: his imprisonment in 1703 brought the works to a standstill, and he lost £3000. From this time forward we hear of no settled business in which he engaged.

The course of Defoe’s life was determined about the middle of the reign of William III by his introduction to that monarch and other influential persons. He frequently boasts of his personal intimacy with the “glorious and immortal” king, and in 1695 he was appointed accountant to the commissioners of the glass duty, an office which he held for 4 years.

In support of the government he published, in 1698, An Argument for a Standing Army, followed in 1700 by a defense of William’s war policy called The Two Great Questions considered, and a set of pamphlets on the Partition Treaty. Thus in political matters he had the same fate as in ecclesiastical; for the Whigs were no more prepared than the Tories to support William through thick and thin.

He also dealt with the questions of stock-jobbing and of electioneering corruption. But his most remarkable publication at this time was The True-Born Englishman (1701), a satire in rough but extremely vigorous verse on the national objection to William as a foreigner, and on the claim of purity of blood for a nation which Defoe chooses to represent as crossed and dashed with all the strains and races in Europe.

He also took a prominent part in the proceedings which followed the Kentish petition, and was the author, some say the presenter, of the Legion Memorial, which asserted in the strongest terms the supremacy of the electors over the elected, and of which even an irate House of Commons did not dare to take much notice. The theory of the indefeasible supremacy of the freeholders of England, whose delegates merely, according to this theory, the Commons were, was one of Defoe’s favorite political tenets, and he returned to it in a powerfully written tract entitled The Original Power of the Collective Body of the People of England examined and asserted (1701).

At the same time he was occupied in a controversy on the conformity question with John How (or Howe) on the practice of “occasional conformity.” Defoe maintained that the dissenters who attended the services of the English Church on particular occasions to qualify themselves for office were guilty of inconsistency. At the same time he did not argue for the complete abolition of the tests, but desired that they should be so framed as to make it possible for most Protestants conscientiously to subscribe to them. Here again his moderation pleased neither party.

Imprisonment

Daniel Defoe in the pillory, 1862 line engraving by James Charles Armytage after Eyre Crowe. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

The death of William was a great misfortune to Defoe, and he soon felt the power of his adversaries. After publishing The Mock Mourners, intended to satirize and rebuke the outbreak of Jacobite joy at the king’s death, he turned his attention once more to ecclesiastical subjects, and, in an evil hour for himself, wrote the anonymous Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702), a statement in the most forcible terms of the extreme “high-flying” position, which some high churchmen were unwary enough to endorse, without any suspicion of the writer’s ironical intention. The author was soon discovered; and, as he absconded, an advertisement was issued offering a reward for his apprehension, and giving the only personal description we possess of him, as “a middle-sized spare man about forty years old, of a brown complexion and dark brown-coloured hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth.”

In this conjuncture Defoe had really no friends, for the dissenters were as much alarmed at his book as the high-flyers were irritated. He surrendered, and his defense appears to have been injudiciously conducted; at any rate he was fined 200 marks, and condemned to be pilloried 3 times, to be imprisoned indefinitely, and to find sureties for his good behavior during 7 years. It was in reference to this incident that Pope, whose Catholic rearing made him detest the abettor of the Revolution and the champion of William of Orange, wrote in the Dunciad —

“Earless on high stands unabash’d Defoe”

— though he knew that the sentence to the pillory had long ceased to entail the loss of ears.

Defoe’s exposure in the pillory (on July 29, 30, 31) was, however, rather a triumph than a punishment, for the populace took his side; and his Hymn to the Pillory, which he soon after published, is one of the best of his poetical works. Unluckily for him his condemnation had the indirect effect of destroying his business at Tilbury.

He remained in prison until August 1704, and then owed his release to the intercession of Robert Harley, who represented his case to the queen, and obtained for him not only liberty but pecuniary relief and employment, which lasted until the termination of Anne’s reign. Defoe was uniformly grateful to the minister, and his language respecting him is in curious variance with that generally used. There is no doubt that Harley, who understood the influence wielded by Defoe, made some conditions. Defoe says he received no pension, but his subsequent fidelity was at all events indirectly rewarded; moreover, Harley’s moderation in a time of the extremest party-insanity was no little recommendation to Defoe.

During his imprisonment he was by no means idle. A spurious edition of his works having been issued, he himself produced a collection of 22 treatises, to which some time afterwards he added another group of 18 more. He also wrote in prison many short pamphlets, chiefly controversial, published a curious work on the famous storm of 26 November 1703, and started in February 1704 perhaps the most remarkable of all his projects, The Review. This was a paper which was issued during the greater part of its life 3 times a week. It was entirely written by Defoe, and extends to 8 complete volumes and some few score numbers of a second issue. He did not confine himself to news, but wrote something very like finished essays on questions of policy, trade and domestic concerns; he also introduced a “Scandal Club,” in which minor questions of manners and morals were treated in a way which undoubtedly suggested the Tatlers and Spectators which followed. The only complete copy known to exist is in the British Museum. It is probable that if bulk, rapidity of production, variety of matter, originality of design, and excellence of style be taken together, hardly any author can show a work of equal magnitude.

From prison to Crusoe

After his release Defoe went to Bury St Edmunds, though he did not interrupt either his Review or his occasional pamphlets. At the end 1705 he performed a secret mission, the earliest of several of the kind, for Harley.

In October 1706 he was sent on a political mission to Scotland by Sidney Godolphin, to whom Harley had recommended him. He resided in Edinburgh for nearly 16 months, and his services to the government were repaid by a regular salary. He seems to have devoted himself to commercial and literary as well as to political matters, and prepared at this time his elaborate History of the Union, which appeared in 1709. In this year Henry Sacheverell delivered his famous sermons, and Defoe wrote several tracts about them and attacked the preacher in his Review.

In 1710 Harley returned to power, and Defoe was placed in a somewhat awkward position. To Harley himself he was bound by gratitude and by a substantial agreement in principle, but with the rest of the Tory ministry he had no sympathy. He seems, in fact, to have agreed with the foreign policy of the Tories and with the home policy of the Whigs, and naturally incurred the reproach of time-serving and the hearty abuse of both parties.

At the end of 1710 he again visited Scotland. In the negotiations concerning the Peace of Utrecht, Defoe strongly supported the ministerial side, to the intense wrath of the Whigs, displayed in an attempted prosecution against some pamphlets of his on the all-important question of the succession. Again the influence of Harley saved him. He continued, however, to take the side of the dissenters in the questions affecting religious liberty, which played such a prominent part towards the close of Anne’s reign. He naturally shared Harley’s downfall; and, though the loss of his salary might seem a poor reward for his constant support of the Hanoverian claim, it was little more than his ambiguous, not to say trimming, position must have led him to expect.

Defoe declared that Lord Annesley was preparing the army in Ireland to join a Jacobite rebellion, and was indicted for libel; and prior to his trial (1715) he published an apologia entitled An Appeal to Honour and Justice, in which he defended his political conduct.

Having been convicted of the libel he was liberated later in the year under circumstances that only became clear in 1864, when 6 letters were discovered in the Record Office from Defoe to a Government official, Charles Delafaye, which, according to William Lee, established the fact that in 1718 at least Defoe was doing not only political work, but that it was of a somewhat equivocal kind — that he was, in fact, sub-editing the Jacobite Mist’s Journal, under a secret agreement with the government that he should tone down the sentiments and omit objectionable items. He had, in fact, been released on condition of becoming a government agent. He seems to have performed the same not very honorable office in the case of 2 other journals — Dormer’s Letter and the Mercurius Politicus — and to have written in these and other papers until nearly the end of his life. Before these letters were discovered it was supposed that Defoe’s political work had ended in 1715.

The initial volume of his most famous work, the immortal story — partly adventure, partly moralizing — of The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, was published on 25 April 1719. It ran through 4 editions in as many months, and then in August appeared the 2nd volume. 12 months afterwards the sequel Serious Reflections, now hardly ever reprinted, appeared. Its connection with the 2 former parts is little more than nominal, Crusoe being simply made the mouth-piece of Defoe’s sentiments on various points of morals and religion. Meanwhile the first 2 parts were reprinted as a feuilleton in Heathcote’s Intelligencer, perhaps the earliest instance of the appearance of such a work in such a form.

Life after Crusoe

There is little to be said of Defoe’s private life during this period. He must in some way or other have obtained a considerable income. In 1724 he had built himself a large house at Stoke Newington, which had stables and grounds of considerable size. From the negotiations for the marriage of his daughter Sophia it appears that he had landed property in more than 1 place, and he had obtained on lease in 1722 a considerable estate from the corporation of Colchester, which was settled on his unmarried daughter at his death. Other property was similarly allotted to his widow and remaining children, though some difficulty seems to have arisen from the misconduct of his son, to whom, for some purpose, the property was assigned during his father’s lifetime, and who refused to pay what was due.

He was attacked by Mist, whom he wounded, in prison in 1724. It is most likely that Mist had found out that Defoe was a government agent and quite probable that he communicated his knowledge to other editors, for Defoe’s journalistic employment almost ceased about this time, and he began to write anonymously, or as “Andrew Moreton.” It is possible that he had to go into hiding to avoid the danger of being accused as a real Jacobite, when those with whom he had contracted to assume the character were dead and could no longer justify his attitude.

There is a good deal of mystery about the end of Defoe’s life; it used to be said that he died insolvent, and that he had been in jail shortly before his death. As a matter of fact, after great suffering from gout and stone, he died in Ropemaker’s Alley, Moorfields, on Monday 26 April 1731, and was buried in Bunhill Fields.

He left no will, all his property having been previously assigned, and letters of administration were taken out by a creditor. How his affairs fell into this condition, why he did not die in his own house, and why in the previous summer he had been in hiding, as we know he was from a letter still extant, are points not clearly explained.

Family

Defoe's widow, Mary Tuffley, survived until December 1732. They had 7 children. His 2nd son, Bernard or Benjamin Norton, has, like his father, a scandalous niche in the Dunciad. In April 1877 public attention was called to the distress of 3 maiden ladies, directly descended from Defoe, and bearing his name; and a crown pension of £75 a year was bestowed on each of them. His youngest daughter, Sophia, who married Henry Baker, left a considerable correspondence, now in the hands of her descendants.

Writing

Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than 300 works — books, pamphlets, and journals —on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of business journalism and economic journalism.

Early writing

Up to 1715 Defoe wrote nothing but occasional literature, and, except the History of the Union and Jure Divino, nothing of any great length. His Essay on Projects (1698) – containing suggestions on banks, road-management, friendly and insurance societies of various kinds, mental asylums, bankruptcy, academies, military colleges, high schools for women, &c. – displays Defoe’s lively and lucid style in full vigor, and abounds with ingenious thoughts and apt illustrations, though it illustrates also the unsystematic character of his mind. In the same year Defoe wrote the earliest of a long series of pamphlets on the then burning question of occasional conformity. In this he showed the unlucky independence which, in so many other instances, united all parties against him. While he pointed out to the dissenters the scandalous inconsistency of their playing fast and loose with sacred things, yet he denounced the impropriety of requiring tests at all.

A pamphlet, Giving Alms no Charity, and Employing the Poor a Grievance to the Nation (1704), is extraordinarily far-sighted. It denounces both indiscriminate alms-giving and the national work-shops proposed by Sir Humphrey Mackworth. In 1705 appeared The Consolidator, or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon, a political satire which is supposed to have given some hints for Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels

In 1706 appeared the True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs Veal, long supposed to have been written for a bookseller to help off an unsaleable translation of Drelincourt, On Death, but considerable doubt has been cast upon this by William Lee. Defoe’s next work was Jure divino, a long poetical argument in (bad) verse; and soon afterwards (1706) he began to be much employed in promoting the union with Scotland. Not only did he write pamphlets as usual on the project, and vigorously recommend it in The Review.

In 1715 appeared the initial volume of The Family Instructor, which was very popular during the 18th century.

Robinson Crusoe

The story of Robinson Crusoe (1719) was founded on Dempier’s Voyage round the World (1697), and still more on Alexander Selkirk’s adventures, as communicated by Selkirk himself at a meeting with Defoe at the house of Mrs Damaris Daniel at Bristol. Selkirk afterwards told Mrs Daniel that he had handed over his papers to Defoe.

Robinson Crusoe was immediately popular, and a wild story was set afloat of its having been written by Lord Oxford in the Tower. A curious idea, revived by Henry Kingsley, is that the adventures of Robinson are allegorical and relate to Defoe’s own life. This idea was certainly entertained to some extent at the time, and derives some color of justification from words of Defoe’s, but there seems to be no serious foundation for it.

Robinson Crusoe (especially the story part, with the philosophical and religious moralizings largely cut out) is a world’s classic in fiction. Crusoe’s shipwreck and adventures, his finding the footprint in the sand, his man “Friday,” — the whole atmosphere of romance which surrounds the position of the civilized man fending for himself on a desert island — these have made Defoe’s great work an imperishable part of English literature.

1719-1722

Contemporaneously appeared The Dumb Philosopher, or Dickory Cronke, who gains the power of speech at the end of his life and uses it to predict the course of European affairs.

In 1720 came The Life and Adventures of Mr Duncan Campbell. This was not entirely a work of imagination, its hero, the fortune-teller, being a real person. There are amusing passages in the story, but it is too desultory to rank with Defoe’s best. In the same year appeared 2 wholly or partially fictitious histories, each of which might have made a reputation for any man. The earliest was the Memoirs of a Cavalier, which Lord Chatham believed to be true history, and which William Lee considers the embodiment at least of authentic private memoirs. The Cavalier was declared at the time to be Andrew Newport, made Lord Newport in 1642. His elder brother was born in 1620 and the Cavalier gives 1608 as the date of his birth, so that the facts do not fit the dates. It is probable that Defoe, with his extensive acquaintance with English history, and his astonishing power of working up details, was fully equal to the task of inventing it. As a model of historical work of a certain kind it is hardly surpassable, and many separate passages — accounts of battles and skirmishes — have never been equalled except by Thomas Carlyle.

Captain Singleton, the last work of 1720, has been unjustly depreciated by most of the commentators. The record of the journey across Africa, with its surprising anticipations of subsequent discoveries, yields in interest to no work of the kind known to us; and the semi-piratical Quaker who accompanies Singleton in his buccaneering expeditions is a most life-like character. There is also a Quaker who plays a very creditable part in Roxana (1724), and Defoe seems to have been well affected to the Friends. In estimating this wonderful productiveness on the part of a man 60 years old, it should be remembered that it was a habit of Defoe’s to keep his work in manuscript sometimes for long periods.

In 1721 nothing of importance was produced, but in the next year 3 capital works appeared: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, The Journal of the Plague Year, and The History of Colonel Jack.

In 1722's Journal of the Plague Year (or, from the title of the 2nd edition, A History of the Plague}, the accuracy and apparent veracity of the details is so great that many persons have taken it for an authentic record, while others have contended for the existence of such a record as its basis. But here too the genius of Mrs Veal’s creator must, in the absence of all evidence to the contrary, be allowed sufficient for the task. The History of Colonel Jack is an unequal book. There is hardly in Robinson Crusoe a scene equal, and there is consequently not in English literature a scene superior, to that where the youthful pickpocket 1t exercises his trade, and then for a time loses his ill-gotten gains. But a great part of the book, especially the latter portion, is dull; and in fact it may be generally remarked of Defoe that the conclusions of his tales are not equal to the beginning, perhaps from the restless indefatigability with which he undertook a new work almost before finishing another.

Moll Flanders and Roxana

Moll Flanders (1722) and The Fortunate Mistress (Roxana), which followed in 1724, have subjects of a rather more than questionable character, but both display the remarkable art with which Defoe handles such subjects. It is not true, as is sometimes said, that the difference between them is that between gross and polished vice. The real difference is much more of morals than of manners. Moll is by no means of the lowest class. Notwithstanding the greater degradation into which she falls, and her originally dependent position, she has been well educated, and has consorted with persons of gentle birth. She displays throughout much greater real refinement of feeling than the more high-flying Roxana, and is at any rate flesh and blood, if the flesh be somewhat frail and the blood somewhat hot.

Neither of the heroines has any but the rudiments of a moral sense; but Roxana, both in her original transgression and in her subsequent conduct, is actuated merely by avarice and selfishness — vices which are peculiarly offensive in connexion with her other failing, and which make her thoroughly repulsive. The art of both stories is great, and that of the episode of the daughter Susannah in Roxana is consummate; but the transitions of the later plot are less natural than those in Moll Flanders. It is only fair to notice that while the latter, according to Defoe’s more usual practice, is allowed to repent and end happily, Roxana is brought to complete misery; Defoe’s morality, therefore, required more repulsiveness in the 1 case than in the other.

Moll Flanders is an important work in the development of the novel, as it challenged the common perception of femininity and gender roles in 18th-century British society. More recently it has come to be misunderstood as an example of erotica.

1724-1728

To this period belong his stories of famous criminals, of Jack Sheppard (1724), of Jonathan Wild (1725), of the Highland Rogue i.e. Rob Roy (1723). The pamphlet on Jack Sheppard Defoe maintained to be a transcript of a paper which he persuaded Sheppard to give to a friend at his execution.

In 1724 appeared also the initial volume of A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain, which was completed in the 2 following years. Much of the information in this was derived from personal experience, for Defoe claims to have made many more tours and visits about England than those of which we have record; but the major part must necessarily have been dexterous compilation. In 1725 appeared A New Voyage round the World, apparently entirely due to the author’s own fertile imagination and extensive reading. It is full of his peculiar verisimilitude and has all the interest of Anson’s or Dampier’s voyages, with a charm of style superior even to that of the latter.

In 1726 Defoe published a curious and amusing little pamphlet entitled Everybody’s Business is Nobody’s Business, or Private Abuses Public Grievances, exemplified in the Pride, Insolence, and Exorbitant Wages of our Women-Servants, Footmen, &c. This subject was a favorite with him, and in the pamphlet he showed the immaturity of his political views by advocating legislative interference in these matters.

Towards the end of 1726 The Complete English Tradesman, which may be supposed to sum up the experience of Defoe's business life, appeared, and its 2nd volume followed 2 years afterwards. This book has been variously judged. It is generally and traditionally praised, but those who have read it will be more disposed to agree with Charles Lamb, who considers it “of a vile and debasing tendency,” and thinks it “almost impossible to suppose the author in earnest.” The intolerable meanness advocated for the sake of the paltriest gains, the entire ignoring of any pursuit in life except money-getting, and the representation of the whole duty of man as consisting 1st in the attainment of a competent fortune, and next, when that fortune has been attained, in spending not more than half of it, are certainly repulsive enough. But there are no reasons for thinking the performance ironical or insincere, and it cannot be doubted that Defoe would have been honestly unable even to understand Lamb’s indignation.

To 1726 also belongs The Political History of the Devil. This is a curious book, partly explanatory of Defoe’s ideas on morality, and partly belonging to a series of demonological works which he wrote, and of which the chief others are A System of Magic (1726), and An Essay on the History of Apparitions (1728), issued the year before under another title. In all these works his treatment is on the whole rational and sensible; but in The History of the Devil he is somewhat hampered by an insufficiently worked-out theory as to the nature and personal existence of his hero, and the manner in which he handles the subject is an odd and not altogether satisfactory mixture of irony and earnestness. A Plan of English Commerce, containing very enlightened views on export trade, appeared in 1728.

During the years from 1715 to 1728 Defoe had issued pamphlets and minor works too numerous to mention. All that perhaps which requires notice is Religious Courtship (1722), a curious series of dialogues displaying Defoe’s unaffected religiosity, and at the same time the rather meddling intrusiveness with which he applied his religious notions. This was more flagrantly illustrated in a later work, The Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed (1727), which was originally issued with a much more offensive name, and has been called “an excellent book with an improper title.”

The Memoirs of Captain Carleton (1728) were long attributed to Defoe, but the internal evidence is strongly against his authorship. They have been also attributed to Swift, with greater probability as far as style is concerned. The Life of Mother Ross, reprinted in Bohn’s edition, has no claim whatever to be considered Defoe’s.

Critical introduction

Scott justly observed that Defoe’s style “is the last which should be attempted by a writer of inferior genius; for though it be possible to disguise mediocrity by fine writing, it appears in all its naked inanity when it assumes the garb of simplicity.” The methods by which Defoe attains his result are not difficult to disengage. They are the presentment of all his ideas and scenes in the plainest and most direct language, the frequent employment of colloquial forms of speech, the constant insertion of little material details and illustrations, often of a more or less digressive form, and, in his historico-fictitious works, as well as in his novels, the most rigid attention to vivacity and consistency of character.

Plot he disregards, and he is fond of throwing his dialogues into regular dramatic form, with by-play prescribed and stage directions interspersed. A particular trick of his is also to divide his arguments after the manner of the preachers of his day into heads and subheads, with actual numerical signs affixed to them. These mannerisms undoubtedly help and emphasize the extraordinary faithfulness to nature of his fictions, but it would be a great mistake to suppose that they fully explain their charm. Defoe possessed genius, and his secret is at the last as impalpable as the secret of genius always is.

The character of Defoe, both mental and moral, is very clearly indicated in his works. He, the satirist of the true-born Englishman, was himself a model, with some notable variations and improvements, of the Englishman of his period. He saw a great many things, and what he did see he saw clearly. But there were also a great many things which he did not see, and there was often no logical connection whatever between his vision and his blindness. The most curious example of this inconsistency, or rather of this indifference to general principle, occurs in his Essay on Projects. He there speaks very briefly and slightingly of life insurance, probably because it was then regarded as impious by religionists of his complexion. But on either side of this refusal are to be found elaborate projects of friendly societies and widows’ funds, which practically cover, in a clumsy and roundabout manner, the whole ground of life insurance. In morals it is evident that he was, according to his lights, a strictly honest and honorable man. But sentiment of any “high-flying” description — to use the cant word of his time — was quite incomprehensible to him, or rather never presented itself as a thing to be comprehended. He tells us with honest and simple pride that when his patron Harley fell out, and Godolphin came in, he for 3 years held no communication with the former, and seems quite incapable of comprehending the delicacy which would have obliged him to follow Harley’s fallen fortunes. His very anomalous position in regard to Mist is also indicative of a rather blunt moral perception.

A most affecting thing in his novels is the heroic constancy and fidelity of the maid Amy to her exemplary mistress Roxana. But Amy, scarcely by her own fault, is drawn into certain breaches of definite moral laws which Defoe did understand, and she is therefore condemned, with hardly a word of pity, to a miserable end.

Nothing heroic or romantic was within Defoe’s view; he could not understand passionate love, ideal loyalty, aesthetic admiration or anything of the kind; and it is probable that many of the little sordid touches which delight us by their apparent satire were, as designed, not satire at all, but merely a faithful representation of the feelings and ideas of the classes of which he himself was a unit.

His political and economical pamphlets are almost unmatched as clear presentations of the views of their writer. For driving the nail home no one but Swift excels him, and Swift perhaps only in The Drapier’s Letters. There is often a great deal to be said against the view presented in those pamphlets, but Defoe sees nothing of it. He was perfectly fair but perfectly 1-sided, being generally happily ignorant of everything which told against his own view.

The same characteristics are curiously illustrated in his moral works. The morality of these is almost amusing in its downright positive character. With all the Puritan eagerness to push a clear, uncompromising, Scripture-based distinction of right and wrong into the affairs of every-day life, he has a thoroughly English horror of casuistry, and his clumsy canons consequently make wild work with the infinite intricacies of human nature. He is, in fact, an instance of the tendency, which has so often been remarked by other nations in the English, to drag in moral distinctions at every turn, and to confound everything which is novel to the experience, unpleasant to the taste, and incomprehensible to the understanding, under the general epithets of wrong, wicked and shocking. His works of this class therefore are now the least valuable, though not the least curious, of his books.

Critical reputation

In his lifetime, Defoe, as not belonging to either of the great parties at a time of the bitterest party strife, was subjected to obloquy on both sides. The great Whig writers leave him unnoticed. Jonathan Swift and John Gay speak slightingly of him,— the former, it is true, at a time when he was only known as a party pamphleteer. Alexander Pope, with less excuse, put him in the Dunciad towards the end of his life, but he confessed to Spence in private that Defoe had written many things and none bad.

At a later period Defoe was unjustly described as “a scurrilous party writer,” which he certainly was not; but, on the other hand, Samuel Johnson spoke of his writing “so variously and so well,” and put Robinson Crusoe among the only 3 books that readers wish longer. From Sir Walter Scott downwards the tendency to judge literary work on its own merits to a great extent restored Defoe to his proper place, or, to speak more correctly, set him there for the 1st time. Macaulay’s description of Roxana, Moll Flanders, and Colonel Jack as “utterly nauseous and wretched” must be set aside as a freak of criticism.

Recognition

There are several portraits of Defoe, the principal one being engraved by Vandergucht.

Publications

Poetry

• A New Discovery of an Old Intreague: A Satyr Level'd At Treachery and Ambition: Calculated To the Nativity of the Rapparee Plott, and the Modesty of the Jacobite Clergy. London, 1691.
• The Character of the Late Dr. Samuel Annesley, By way of Elegy: With a Preface. London: Printed for E. Whitlock, 1697.
• The Pacificator. A Poem. London: Printed & sold by J. Nutt, 1700.
• The True-Born Englishman: A Satyr. London, 1700 [1701]; Philadelphia, 1811.
• A New Satyr on the Parliament. London, 1701.
• England's Late Jury: A Satyr (doubtfully attributed to Defoe). London, 1701.
• The Mock-Mourners. A Satyr, By way of Elegy on King William. London, 1702).
• Reformation of Manners, A Satyr. London, 1702.
• The Spanish Descent. A Poem. London, 1702.
• The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or Proposals For The Establishment Of The Church. London, 1702.
• An Encomium upon a Parliament. London, 1703.
• More Reformation. A Satyr Upon Himself. London, 1703.
• A Hymn to the Pillory. London, 1703.
• A Hymn to the Funeral Sermon (doubtfully attributed to Defoe). London, 1703.
• An Elegy on the Author of the True-Born-English-Man. With An Essay on the late Storm. London, 1704.
• A Hymn to Victory. London: Printed for J. Nutt, 1704.
• The Double Welcome. A poem to the Duke of Marlbro. London: Printed & sold by B. Bragg, 1705.
• The Dyet of Poland, A Satyr. Dantzick [London], 1705.
• A Declaration without Doors (broadside). London, 1705.
• A Hymn to Peace. Occasion'd, by the Two Houses Joining in One Address to the Queen. London: Printed for John Nutt, 1706.
• Daniel Defoe's Hymn for the Thanksgiving. London: Printed for the author, 1706.
• Jure Divino. A Satyr. In Twelve Books. London, 1706.
• The Vision, A Poem. Edinburgh, 1706.
• A Reply to the Scots Answer, to the British Vision. Edinburgh, 1706.
• Caledonia, &c. A Poem In Honour of Scotland, and the Scots Nation. In Three Parts. Edinburgh: Printed by the Heirs & Successors of Andrew Anderson, 1706.
• A Scots Poem: Or A New-years Gift, From a Native of The Universe, To His Fellow-Animals in Albania. Edinburgh, 1707.
• The Fifteen Comforts of a Scotch-Man Written by Daniel D'Foe in Scotland (doubtfully attributed to Defoe). London, 1707.
• The True-Born Britain (doubtfully attributed to Defoe). London, 1707.
• High Church Miracles, or, Modern Inconsistencies (broadside, doubtfully attributed to Defoe. London: Printed & sold by A. Baldwin, 1710.
• The Age of Wonders: To the Tune of Chivy Chase (broadside, doubtfully attributed to Defoe London, 1710.
• A Welcome to the Medal; Or, An Excellent New Song, Call'd the Constitution Restor'd in 1711, to the Tune of Mortimer's-Hole. Oxford, 1711.
• A Hymn to the Mob. London: Printed & sold by S. Popping, J. Fox, S. Boulter, A. Boulter & J. Harrison, 1715.
• The Meditations Of Daniel Defoe Now First Published (edited by George Harris Healey). Cummington, MA: Cummington Press, 1946.

Novels

• The Consolidator or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon. Translated from the Lunar Language, By the Author of The True-born English Man. London: Printed & sold by Benj. Bragg, 1705.
• Atalantis Major. Olreeky [London], 1711.
• A Continuation of Letters Written by a Turkish Spy At Paris. London: Printed for W. Taylor, 1718.
• The Memoirs of Majr. Alexander Ramkins, A Highland-Officer, Now in Prison at Avignon. Being An Account of several remarkable Adventures during about Twenty Eight Years Service in Scotland, Germany, Italy, Flanders and Ireland. London: Printed for R. King & W. Boreham, 1719 [1718].
• The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner. London: Printed for W. Taylor, 1719
  • republished as The Wonderful Life and Surprizing Adventures of the Renowned Hero Robinson Crusoe. New York: Printed by H. Gaine, 1775.
• The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; Being the Second and Last Part Of His Life. London: Printed for W. Taylor, 1719.
• Memoirs of a Cavalier: Or A Military Journal Of The Wars in Germany, And the Wars in England; From the Year 1632, to the Year 1648. London: Printed for A. Bell, J. Osborn, W. Taylor, & T. Warner, 1720.
• The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton. London: Printed for J. Brotherton, J. Graves, A. Dodd & T. Warner, 1720.
• The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. London: Printed for & sold by W. Chetwood & T. Edling, 1721 [1722].
• A Journal of the Plague Year: Being Observations or Memorials, Of the most Remarkable Occurrences, As well Publick as Private, Which happened in London During the last Great Visitation in 1665. Written by a Citizen who continued all the while in London. London: Printed for E. Nutt, J. Roberts, A. Dodd & J. Graves, 1722.
• The History and Remarkable Life of the truly Honourable Col. Jacque, Commonly Call'd Col. Jack. London: Printed & sold by J. Brotherton, T. Payne, W. Mears, A. Dodd, W. Chetwood, J. Graves, S. Chapman & J. Stagg, 1723 [1722].
• The Fortunate Mistress: Or, A History Of The Life And Vast Variety of Fortunes Of Mademoiselle de Beleau, Afterwards Call'd The Countess de Wintselsheim, in Germany. Being the Person known by the Name of the Lady Roxana, in the Time of King Charles II. London: Printed for T. Warner, W. Meadows, W. Pepper, S. Harding & T. Edlin, 1724.
• A New Voyage Round the World, By A Course never sailed before. London: Printed for A. Bettesworth & W. Mears, 1724.
• The Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts. London: Printed for A. Bettesworth & J. Osborn, 1726.
• The Memoirs of an English Officer, Who serv'd in the Dutch War in 1672. to the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713. London: Printed for E. Symon, 1728.
• Madagascar: or, Robert Drury's Journal, During Fifteen Years Captivity on that Island. London: Printed & sold by W. Meadows, J. Marshall, W. Worrall, & the author, 1729.

Non-fiction

• A Letter to a Dissenter from His Friend at the Hague, Concerning the Papal Laws and the Test; shewing that the Popular Plea for Liberty of Conscience is not concerned in that Question. The Hague [London]: Hans Verdraeght, 1688.
• An Essay upon Projects. London: Printed by R.R. for Tho. Cockerill, 1697.
• The Poor Man's Plea. London, 1698.
• The History of the Kentish Petition. London, 1701).
• Good Advice to the Ladies: Shewing, That as the World goes, and is like to go, the best way for them is to keep Unmarried (doubtfully attributed to Defoe). London, 1702.
• The Address. London, 1704.
• The Storm: Or, A Collection Of the most Remarkable Casualties And Disasters Which happen'd in the Late Dreadful Tempest, Both by Sea and Land. London: Printed for G. Sawbridge & sold by J. Nutt, 1704.
• A True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal. London, 1705.
• Defoe's Answer to the Quaker's Catechism (doubtfully attributed to Defoe). London, 1706.
• The History of the Union Of Great Britain. Edinburgh: Printed by the Heirs & Successors of Andrew Anderson, 1709.
• Resignacon. N.P., 1710; revised, 1712
  • republished in "Defoe's 'Resignation' and the Limitations of 'Mathematical Plainness,'" by Frank H. Ellis, Review of English Studies, new series, 36 (August 1985): 338-354.
• The Candidate: Being a Detection of Bribery and Corruption as it is just now in Practice all over Great Britain. London: Printed for S. Keimer, 1715.
• An Appeal to Honour and Justice, Tho' it be of His Worst Enemies. By Daniel De Foe. Being A True Account of his Conduct in Publick Affairs. London: Printed for J. Baker, 1715.
• The Family Instructor, volume 1, London: Sold by Eman. Matthews & Jo. Button, 1715; Philadelphia: Stewart & Cochran, 1792; volume 2, London: Printed for Emman. Matthews, 1718.
• Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, In Four Periods. London: Printed for Eman. Matthews & T. Warner, 1717.
• Minutes of the Negotiations of Monsr. Manager At the Court of England, Towards the close of the last Reign. London: Printed for S. Baker, 1717.
• A Vindication of the Press: Or, An Essay on the Usefulness of Writing, on Criticism, and the Qualifications of Authors (doubtfully attributed to Defoe). London: Printed for T. Warner, 1718.
• Memoirs of Publick Transactions in the Life and Ministry of his Grace the D. of Shrewsbury. London: Printed for Tho. Warner, 1718.
• A History of the Last Session of the Present Parliament. London: Printed & sold by W. Boreham, 1718.
• Serious Reflections During The Life And Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, With His Vision Of The Angelick World. London: Printed for W. Taylor, 1720.
• Due Preparations for the Plague As Well for Soul as Body. London: Printed for E. Matthews & J. Battey, 1722.
• Religious Courtship: Being Historical Discourses, On The Necessity of Marrying Religious Husbands and Wives only. London: Printed for E. Matthews, A. Bettesworth, J. Brotherton & W. Meadows, 1722; New York: W. Durrell, 1793.
• The Great Law of Subordination Consider'd; Or, The Insolence and Unsufferable Behaviour of Servants in England duly enquir'd into. London: Sold by S. Harding, W. Lewis, T. Worrall, A. Bettesworth, W. Meadows & T. Edlin, 1724.
• A General History Of The Robberies and Murders Of the most notorious Pyrates, And also Their Policies, Discipline and Government, From their first Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, in 1717, to the present Year 1724.
  • volume 1, London: Printed for Ch. Rivington, J. Lacy & J. Stone, 1724)
  • volume 2, published as The History of the Pyrates (London: Printed for & sold by T. Woodward, 1728).
• A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain, Divided into Circuits or Journies. Giving A Particular and Diverting Account of Whatever is Curious and worth Observation (3 volumes). London: Printed & sold by G. Strahan, W. Mears, R. Francklin, S. Chapman, R. Stagg & J. Graves, 1724-1727.
• The Complete English Tradesman (2 volumes). London: Printed for Charles Rivington, 1726 [1725], 1727).
• The Political History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts. London: Printed for T. Warner, 1726).
• Mere Nature Delineated: Or, A Body without a Soul: Being Observations Upon The Young Forester Lately brought to Town from Germany. With Suitable Applications. Also, A Brief Dissertation upon the Usefulness and Necessity of Fools, whether Political or Natural. London: Printed for T. Warner, 1726.
• Conjugal Lewdness: Or, Matrimonial Whoredom. London: Printed for T. Warner, 1727
  • republished as A Treatise Concerning The Use and Abuse Of The Marriage Bed. London: Printed for T. Warner, 1727.
• An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions. London: Printed & sold by J. Roberts, 1727.
• A New Family Instructor: In Familiar Discourses Between A Father and his Children, On the most Essential Points of the Christian Religion. In Two Parts. London: Printed for T. Warner, 1727.
• A Plan of the English Commerce. Being a Compleat Prospect Of the Trade of this Nation, as well the Home Trade as the Foreign. In Three Parts. London: Printed for Charles Rivington, 1728.
• Atlas Maritimus and Commercialis; or, A General View of the World, so Far as It Relates to Trade and Navigation; Describing All the Coasts, Ports, Harbours and Noted Rivers, According to the Latest Discoveries and Most Exact Observations. London: Printed for James & John Knapton, William & John Innys, John Darby, Arthur Bettesworth, John Osborn, Thomas Longman, John Senex, Edward Symon, Andrew Johnston & the executors of William Taylor, 1728.
• The Compleat English Gentleman (edited by Karl D. Bülbring). London: David Nutt, 1890.

Collected editions

• A Collection of the Writings of the Author of The True-Born English-Man. London, 1703.
• A True Collection of the Writings Of The Author of The True Born English-man. Corrected by Himself. London, 1703.
• Review. London, 19 February 1704 - 11 June 1713
  • facsimile published as Defoe's Review (edited by Arthur Wellesley Secord, 22 volumes), New York: Facsimile Text Society, 1938.
• A Second Volume of the Writings Of the Author Of The True-Born Englishman. Some whereof never before printed. Corrected and Enlarged by the Author. London: Printed & sold by the Booksellers, 1705.
• The Genuine Works of Mr. Daniel D'Foe (2 volumes). London: Sold by T. Warner, 1721.
• Works (edited by William W. Hazlitt [the younger]). 3 volumes, London: Clements, 1840-1843.
• Novels and Miscellaneous Works (with prefaces attributed to Sir Walter Scott). 20 volumes, Oxford, UK: D.A. Talboys, for T. Tegg, 1840-1841.
• Novels and Miscellaneous Works. 7 volumes, London: Bell, 1856-1884.
• Earlier Life and Chief Earlier Works (edited by Henry Morley). London & New York: Routledge, 1889.
• Romances and Narratives (edited by George A. Aitken). 16 volumes, London: Dent, 1895.
• Works (edited by G. H. Maynadier). 16 volumes, New York: Sproul, 1903-1904.
• Shakespeare Head Edition of the Novels and Selected Writings. 14 volumes, Oxford: Blackwell, 1927-1928.
• Selections from His Writings (edited by James T. Boulton). New York: Schocken, 1965.
• The Versatile Defoe: An Anthology of Uncollected Writings by Daniel Defoe (edited by Laura A. Curtis). London: Prior, 1979; Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield, 1979.

Letters

• Letters (edited by George Harris Healey). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955.
• Paula R. Backscheider, "John Russell to Daniel Defoe: Fifteen Unpublished Letters from Scotland," Philological Quarterly, 61 (Spring 1982): 161-177.

Anthologized

• Poems on Affairs of State; From the reign of James the First to this Present Year 1703. London, 1703.
• Poems of Affairs of State: Augustan satirical verse, 1660-1714 (edited by Frank H. Ellis), volumes 6 and 7. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1970, 1975.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation. English

See also

• List of British poets

References

 Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Defoe, Daniel". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 927-931. . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 24, 2020.

External links

Poems

• Defoe, Daniel (1660-1731) (1 poem) at Representative Poetry Online
• Daniel Defoe at PoemHunter

Books

• Works by Daniel Defoe at Project Gutenberg
• Full online versions of various copies of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and the Robinsonades
• TrueScans.com Click on Defoe to obtain comprehensive information on The History Of The Union Of Great Britain Edinburgh, Heirs of Anderson, 1709
• Full texts in German and English – eLibrary Projekt (eLib)
• The Journeys of Daniel Defoe around Britain (from A Vision of Britain)
• Daniel Defoe at Amazon.com

About

• Daniel Defoe at NNDB
• Daniel Defoe at Spartacus Educational
• Daniel Defoe biography at The Literature Network
• Defoe, Daniel in the Dictionary of National Biography
• Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) at Luminarium
• About Daniel Defoe at Classical Authors.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Defoe, Daniel