Life and creativity of Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe is the son of the butler James Fow, born in Flanders - a person with liberal beliefs. He gets modestly unsystematic education. From early on, he began to trade in hopes of getting involved. Transactions often take him to the continent. Defoe deals with the production of knitted woolen garments, with the sale of luxury goods, and for a time becomes the owner of a ship. Thirteen times loses substantial sums that accumulate in previous successful deals. Later admits: "Thirteen times I was rich and poor." In 1683 he began to produce haberdashery, married to Mary Tufley, acquired seven children from her, but soon found himself in bankruptcy. After this sequential failure, Defoe renouned any entrepreneurial adventures. It is actively involved in the "Slav Revolution" burst in 1688. Defoe enters the army, takes part in the military expedition to conquer Ireland. After the revolution, he manifested his talent as a pamphlet and gave him the protection of the policy of King Wilhelm III, who was erected by the thriving English industrialists.

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Defoe defends the King's authority and supports his reforms in his pamphlet The True-Born-Englishman. He becomes a zealous champion of freedom of the press and of conscience, protects copyright and religious freedom. He stands on the side of the disputed legitimacy of the new regime with his famous pamphlet "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters." - The anger of the high clergy against the daring publicist has increased to such an extent that the House of Commons has brought him to court in Old Bailey and sentenced him to three exposures to the shameful pillar in 1703 and then shut him down in Newgate's dungeon. Later, journalist Defoe was fined several times for his fiercely incessant attacks on the government, which he published in his newspaper The Review (1703-1713). He writes pamphlets that have long been remembered by his contemporaries: "Giving alms no charity", "Employing the Poor and Grievance to the Nation, "in which ideas developed later were used by some English Social Democrats. As a committed publicist, Defoe defends the ideology of the Viggs (today liberals) , and later devotes himself to the cause of the Tories (today Conservatives). For eleven years he served as political advisor to Minister Harley, one of the most influential state men then in the Tories. His political activities make him famous, but he does not bring him either fame or financial stability.

In 1714, after Tory's overthrow of power, Defoe began actively cooperating with the Wing Government by publishing the weekly Political Mercury magazine, which explains the political strategy of the governors. In 1715, the political and social turmoil, the numerous humiliations experienced, the fierceness of his enemies, and the ingratitude of his supporters forced him to withdraw from active political life. Shortly before the age of sixty, Defoe undertakes different publishing orders. In 1719, the first anonymous edition of the novel about Robinson Crusoe, inspired by the strange tribulations of a Scottish sailor, a native of German origin, named after Alexander Selkirk, appeared. The work is of great interest and the writer who has not previously known to the connoisseurs wrote a second part, which was published next year. Soon on the book market, a series of novels appeared, in which the author, who created the image of Robinson Crusoe, made remarkable variations on the intrigue developed in his masterpiece: The Life, Adventures and Pyracies of the Famous Captain Singleton,, "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Molly Flanders" - a novel-confession in which a repentant woman who, after several marriages and numerous love affairs adventures, decides to make a living as a professional thief. In 1722, the novels of Defoe Colonel Jack and The Journal of the Plague Year were published, and in 1724 Lady Roxana or the Fortunate Mistress.