Biography of Daniel Defoe - 1105 Words

Daniel Defoe, though faced with many struggles as a writer, changed normal English literary styles of writing. Defoe wrote a novel, Robinson Crusoe and was the father of the English novel. As William Hazlitt put it, â€Å"Book making in the hands of a dull man is the worst and degrading of all drudgeries; in the hands of Daniel Defoe it changes character and becomes the noblest and most delightful of all possible occupations.† (7) Though many argue that Daniel Defoe was unable to fully address the weak in his economical Daniel Defoe was born in 1660 in London, England to a James and Annie Foe. His father was a Presbyterian dissenter and was a poor, but hardworking, butcher in London at the time. (Encyclopedia.com 1) Defoes mother died when he was around the age of ten or eleven years old. (Richetti 2) During Defoes childhood he lived through two major catastrophes The Plague of England (1665) that broke out killing 70,000 people and also through The Great Fire of London (1666) that spread across London decimating all houses but Defoes and two others in his neighborhood. (Wikipedia 1) About a year after his mother died Defoes father sent him awat to a school in Surrey and would later send him to academy at Newington Green, which was being run by Reverend Charles Morton when he turned sixteen. (Richetti 3) Reverend Morton previously had been a student of Wadham College, Oxford and always held a strong curiosity in science and mathematics. (Richetti 4)Show MoreRelatedDaniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe: a Spiritual Biography Essay1624 Words   |  7 PagesJanuary 30, 2013 Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe: A Spiritual Biography In the seventeenth century, a form of writing emerged as the idea of religion began to change. Many writers used â€Å"spiritual autobiographies† when writing nonfiction pieces. Spiritual autobiographies and later, biographies, were particularly popular because of the emphasis on the Bible in the late 1600s. The concept of spiritual autobiographies and biographies continued well into the 1700s when Daniel Defoe was making his debutRead More The Life of Daniel Defoe Essay1476 Words   |  6 PagesThe Life of Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe was easily one of the most influential and accomplished English author/writer of all time. Not only is Daniel Defoe considered as the founder of the English novel along with Samuel Richardson, but he was also a critical figure in European journalism and political commentary. Defoe has produced as much as 200 works of non fiction and 2,000 short essays in various periodical publications. In addition to over half a dozen full length novels such as RobinsonRead MoreWe Must Keep Daniel Defoe in the Literary Cannon1235 Words   |  5 PagesDaniel Defoe born in or around 1660 experienced the most complex disastrous events in England before he was seven. In 1664 a Dutch fleet attacked London, in 1665 the plague took seventy thousand lives and in 1666 the great fire destroyed Defoe’s neighborhood expect for three houses, one being his. Born to a family of dissenters a class of people who refused to conform to the Church of England, Defoe was hindered with obstacles from the start. Receiving his education from a dissenter’s school andRead MoreAphra Bens Oroonoko and Daniel Defoes Moll Flanders1562 Words   |  6 Pagesneglected to earn this credibility. Looking specifically at Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko and Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders, Shaw’s definition becomes especially difficult to apply to Moll and Oroonoko’s narrator. While the novels should n ot be declared unsuccessful in their entireties, perhaps the sincerity claimed in both introductions only lessens their overall believability. In the opening lines of his preface, Defoe tells us, â€Å"the Author is here suppos’d to be writing her own History† (1). Behn makesRead MoreThe As A New Way Of Telling Stories1214 Words   |  5 Pagesallows readers to separate the author from the persona. In Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, Defoe acts as both the fake character of Moll Flanders and fake editor of her autobiography to create a new way of telling stories. Finally, in Fantomina by Eliza Haywood, the protagonist uses several disguises to tricking a man about who she is, while at the same time forgetting her main purpose. Disguises are explored by Rochester, Defoe, and Haywood throughout their respective works. Rochester employs the useRead MoreEnglish Literature At The University Of California1992 Words   |  8 PagesFirst-person narration in Defoe A) Find and list SIX printed or online catalogues or databases. 1. JSTOR 2. ProQuest 3. Project MUSE 4. Cambridge Companions Online (http://universitypublishingonline.org.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk) 5. Oxford Scholarship Online, University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO) (http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/) 6. Searcher 7. University of Edinburgh s Library Catalogue a. Three relevant monographs. Novak, Maximillian E. Daniel Defoe: Master of Fictions: HisRead MoreChildrens Literature Becoming an Equalizer876 Words   |  4 Pagesreading. He argued that children should only be taught to read at age twelve and then be limited to the book Robinson Crusoe.† (Susina, 2004). The moldable mind once filled with practical applications will understand the lessons taught by the novel. Daniel Defoe, author of the novel, wrote about singular man on an island fighting to survive until rescue; similar to the aging of children. With this in mind, children’s British and American literature explored the two sides of the adventure stories. Boys’Read MoreMoll Flanders: Fact or Fiction1833 Words   |  8 PagesMoll Flanders: Fact or Fiction? Although Daniel Defoe endeavors to portray Moll Flanders as an autobiography and convince readers that the sordid affairs of Moll actually occurred, readers can find through the reading of his work that Moll Flanders is undoubtedly a completely fictional character. It can be evidenced in the preface and mainly in the dichotomous nature of Moll that she could not possibly be a real person and is just a fictional character. Defoe betrays the credibility of Moll as a realRead MoreLiterature Of Prison Literature1024 Words   |  5 Pagesstrands of rope) were the most common forms of hard labour. Toward the mid-nineteenth century, however, some authors became interested in having the actual conditions of prisons portrayed in their works. Although eighteenth-century authors such as Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), the author of Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722) (whose protagonist is born and imprisoned in Newgate Prison), and John Gays ballad opera The Beggars Opera (1728), William Godwins novel Caleb Williams (1794) had describedRead MoreEssay on Analyis of Knowledge of a Possibility by JUllary Putnam2603 Words   |  11 Pageslife, known as Formal Realism, and writing that offers some authentic aspects of life but also conserves characteristics of classic genres of epics and romances. These contrasting styles can be seen notably in Journal of the Plague Year (1722) by Daniel Defoe, and Joseph Andrews (1742) by Henry Fielding respectively. In the context of these author’s respective works, the intrusiveness of Fielding’s narrator along with his relativel y artificial characters and plot, ultimately makes the work less realistic