Defoe, Daniel - Life and "Robinson Crusoe"

Daniel Defoe & "Robinson Crusoe"

Daniel Defoe was born in a family of Dissenters, and he was educated to become a minister .
He began a trading career and he made several influential friends in the goverment, but he also had problems with debtors and politics.
In fact, he was imprisoned in Newgate Prison because he wrote pamphlets in support of king's policies .
Here he had the opportunity to explore the psycological caracteristics of prisoners.
After spending many years as a journalist, he bacame a novelist and "father of the english novel".

In 1719 he published "Robinson Crusoe", and it became a commercial success because of the vitality and the humanity of his characters, and also because it was written in a natural manner and with so many probable incidents that it was judged by most people to be a true story .
The novel is considered the first english novel, and it tells the story of an ordinary man who faces axtraordinary circumnstances.
In the beginning he explains his origins and his desire to go in serch of adventures at sea, but a hurricane wrecks the vessel, so he create his own small Kingdom on the Island.
After 24 years, he finds cannibals on the Island, and then rescues one of them from death and calls him Friday.
After 27 years, he’s rescued by an english ship, so he went back home and took Friday with him.
28 years later, after his return to civilization, he realises that he has become rich, thanks to his early investments.