Daniel Defoe was born in London in 1660, the year of the Restoration of Charles II to the English throne, to James and Alice Foe (Daniel later added the French prefix De to his surmane). His father was a successful tradesman and candle merchant, and provided his family with a stable, middle-class lifestyle. The Foes were Dissenters and therefore were excluded from attending universities, from holding public office, and possible persecution (violence, imprisonment). At around the age of ten, shortly after his mother's early death, Defoe began a decade in the schools of the Dissenters. The curriculum, underplaying the Greek and Latin of conventional Anglican education, focused instead on new science and philosophy, on clear argument and public speaking, as well as on two forms of thought and composition that cultivated the student's ability to imagine "differing fortunes": prose impersonation, where the student was asked to "play" a given figure (for example, a secretary of state) in a particular situation, and to write a letter or give a speech suitable to the occasion; and casuistry, a kind of moral and theological game of "What if?": if I were to find myself in such and such a predicament, such a dilemma, what should I do? The question recurs, explicitly and implicitly, throughout Defoe's prose.

DEFOE'S REPUTATION
Daniel Defoe was a prolific writer (over 370 known publications) who couldand wouldturn his hand to almost any topic; he has been called one of the greatest journalists and the father of journalism. To many of his contemporaries, he was a man who sold his pen to the political party in office and so lacking integrity. He was not taken seriously by literary men, though his skill at writing was acknowledged. Alexander Pope said of him, "The first part of Robinson Crusoe is very goodDe Foe wrote a vast many things; and none bad, though none excellent, except this" (1742).
He was an outsider, being a Dissenter or Puritan, the son of a butcher, and a suspected government spy (this suspicion was confirmed in the nineteenth century). Jonathan Swift regarded him with contempt, "One of these Authors (the Fellow that was pilloryed, I have forgot his Name) is indeed so grave, sententious, dogmatical a Rogue, that there is no enduring him." At least part of Swift's attitude is snobbery; Defoe was not a gentleman born or raised though he aspired to be one and changed his name from Foe to Defoe and bought a coach with his coat of arms on its door.
For nearly seventy-five years, Defoe's reputation as a writer was in decline. But from 1780 to1830, a succession of biographies and editions of his works was published, and his literary star began to rise. As perceptive a critic as Coleridge appreciated his artistry. But Sir Walter Scott, though appreciative, raised the objection that Defoe lacked conscious artistry, "Defoe seems to have written too rapidly to pay the least attention to his circumstances; the incidents are huddled together like paving-stones discharged from a cart, and as little connexion between the one and the other." This objection continues to be raised.
Despite these favorable changes, Defoe had not yet achieved his current literary eminence. The revelation that he had been a government spy reinforced the earlier negative view of him, and some mid-19th century readers were shocked by the language and content of Moll Flanders and other novels with rogues as the main character. Despite these negative reactions, by 1860 the number of books and essays about him increased dramatically, and he was on the way to being acknowledged as one of the great eighteenth century writers.
He received widespread and consistent serious critical attention in the twentieth century, and his works have been subjected to modern interpretations, e.g., Marxist, psychoanalytic, feminist, and poststructuralist.

Biographer Max Novak notes that when Defoe's remains were disinterred on September 16, 1871, in order to create a monument to his achievments, "the even degenerated into a near riot. Police had to be called to guard Defoe's remains from those seeking to carry off a bone or two as a relic...."

TOPIC: Defoe and the novel

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Analyze the full title to this book, along with other information conveyed on Defoe's original title page. Why is that information there, and why is it presented in the way it is?

2. 2. Is this a realistic novel? Discuss the novel in terms of realism. What sort of details does Defoe include to create an impression of reality? Why might he wish us to see the novel as "history" rather than romance/
see the preface, the final words of the novel, and specific details like street and place names.

3. Consider Moll Flanders both as character (in general) and as heroine (in particular).
How does she conform to our expectations of heroism? How does she violate those expectations?
How and why does Defoe manage to make her so attractive to us that we can "forgive" her for her apparently deviant behavior?
What is her greatest or strongest attribute? Her greatest weakness?

4. Why is the novel written as a continuous first-person narrative, without even any chapter breaks? What is the advantage of having the author (Defoe) withdraw his own narrative "voice" and letting his protagonist tell her own story more or less "in her own words"?