Daniel Defoe

Memoirs of a Cavalier (Dodo Press) Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe (1659/1661-1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719). Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest practitioners of the novel and helped popularise the genre in Britain. In some texts he is even referred to as one of the founders, if not the founder, of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote over five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He is also a pioneer of economic journalism. His most famous novel, Robinson Crusoe (1719), tells of a man's shipwreck on a desert island and his subsequent adventures. He also wrote Captain Singleton (1720), which portrays the redemptive power of one man's love for another; and Moll Flanders (1722), a picaresque first-person narration of the fall and eventual redemption of a lone woman in 17th century England.