Daniel Defoe (c. 1660–1731), one of the most famous writers in English literature, was born in London, the son of James Foe, a butcher. It was Daniel who changed his name to De Foe or Defoe in about 1705.
Politics occupied quite a bit of Defoe’s earlier life. He was an opponent of King James II, and had supported the Duke of Monmouth in his short-lived uprising in 1685. When the Glorious Revolution of 1688 was successful, and William III was on the throne, Defoe became one of his personal friends.
This led to his becoming employed, after failing miserably as a businessman, as a writer for the government. At the same time, however, he pursued an independent line as a writer of pamphlets – often satirical – on various social issues. Although this landed him in prison in 1702, he was soon reinstated and, in 1706 formed part of the team sent to Scotland to negotiate the terms of union with England.
In 1706, a sailor named Alexander Selkirk was rescued after having lived alone for three years on a desert island in the Pacific. When Defoe turned to full-time writing, this episode fired his imagination – and the result, in 1719, was the publication of Robinson Crusoe. The book has become so famous that it has lent its name to the whole genre of castaway literature, which are called by their French name of robinsonnades. Defoe's particular strength is in meticulous detail, giving the reader the impression that he is not reading fiction but an historical report.
Several other adventure stories followed, including Moll Flanders (1722), and other works, of which the most famous is A Journal of the Plague Year (also 1722). In all, including pamphlets, Defoe authored over 250 works.
Defoe has often been compared to Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels. Swift, however, complained of Defoe's occasional moral tone and seriousness. Puffin agree with Swift, and therefore this abridged edition concentrates on the essential storyline of the book.