Daniel Defoe: A Study In Conflict

by Brian Fitzgerald

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250 pages, Hardcover

Published July 23, 2009

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Brian Fitzgerald - Illustrator

Reviews

[James F · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fairly good "interpretive" biography of Defoe, who unlike many authors actually had an interesting life apart from his writings. Born in 1660 to a Dissenting family (Fitzgerald uses the words Presbyterian and Puritan interchangeably for them, although I think those were two different denominations), he grew up under the Restoration, was intended to be a Presbyterian preacher but chose to go into trade instead, rebelled against James II, became a favorite of William III, and a political prisoner under Queen Anne, but later a friend and secret agent of Harley. He wrote hundreds of political and economic pamphlets, most anonymously. Fitzgerald calls him the first full-time journalist in England; he edited his own paper, The Review, for nine years and pioneered many of the features of the modern newspaper. He proposed many progressive ideas, including education for women. The novels, for which he is most famous, from Robinson Crusoe to Roxana, were written in a fifteen year period near the end of his life.

Fitzgerald's book gives a good account of the political and economic background of the times; I was surprised by the Marxist terminology in a book published in 1955 by the very conservative Henry Regnery publishers. He emphasizes the contradictions and conflicts in Defoe's life, particularly between his religious background and his personal life, many of which reflected the contradictions in the role of the English bourgeoisie when it was still progressive if no longer revolutionary. The discussion of the novels is briefer than I would have liked but does give a good idea of why he is important in the history of the novel.