Daniel defoe (1660 ~ 173 1), an English novelist, was the founder of realistic novels in the English Enlightenment period and was known as the "father of European novels". He was born in London, England and traveled widely. In his early years, he was engaged in underwear, tobacco and alcohol, woolen goods, brick making and other industries, and went to Chinese mainland to do business.
1684, Defoe married the daughter of a wine merchant and got a dowry of 3,700 pounds from her family. He recruited his wife and brother-in-law as partners and started to run a small department store. In addition, they also do business in Europe and often do wine trade to increase their income. However, he followed the Puritan principle in the business of "drunkards" and opposed the sale of gin and general spirits that almost flooded London at that time.
1692, he went bankrupt in business and was in debt 17000. Later, I failed many times and had to make a living in various ways. He worked as a government agent, designed various development careers and engaged in writing at the same time.
1698 published "On Development", which advocated building roads, setting up banks, enacting bankruptcy laws, establishing insane asylum, establishing fire and water insurance, collecting income tax and establishing girls' schools.
170 1 year, he published the satirical poem "The Real Englishman", arguing that there are no pure Englishmen, opposing the aristocratic Catholic forces and defending the foreign Protestant William III. This poem has been printed in nine editions.
1702 published a political essay "Shortcuts to Eliminate Different Sects", which used irony to oppose the oppression of people of different sects by the state religion. His works are very original. At first, he was not regarded as opposed to the state religion, but later he was found and punished by fines and imprisonment. He was imprisoned for six months and shown off three times, but he was regarded as a hero by Londoners. While in prison, he wrote an ode to the cangue (1703) imitating the ode of the Greek poet Pindaros, satirizing the injustice of the law.
1704, daniel defoe ran the Review magazine for Whig leader Harry, mainly to win support for Harry's English-Scottish joint policy. After that, he traveled between England and Scotland for 1 1 year, serving as the secret agent of Harry and his successor Tory Godolphin, collecting public opinions. During this period, he was briefly imprisoned for writing articles, but he never stopped collecting information, running newspapers and writing articles for Whig politicians.
Defoe started writing novels at the age of 59. The first novel Robinson Crusoe was published in 17 19, which was very popular. He successfully created an idealized bourgeois image, which is a pioneering work in the history of European novels. A sequel was published in the same year.
1720, he wrote Robinson Crusoe. Since then, he has written several novels: Captain singleton and Moore Flanders? Captain Jack and so on. In addition, he also wrote biographies of some cadres, such as the biography of Campbell, a deaf-mute fortune teller, and the story of Peter the Great. His novel Robinson Crusoe is the most widely circulated and is regarded as his masterpiece.
Defoe wrote some excellent works after Robinson Crusoe, including Moore Flanders and Colonel Jack, which are listed as classics of English literature.
The best-selling of Robinson Crusoe prompted him to write a sequel to Robinson Crusoe, and he let his hero travel around the world. Most of Robinson's trip starts from Beijing, passes through Siberia and reaches Arkhangelsk. He has never been to China, but in the sequel, he talked about Heilongjiang, which was unknown to Europeans at that time.
Defoe, who was seventy years old, had to hide in order to avoid debts. He rented a room in Sidi, the center of old London.
173 1 one day, London's "Courier" published a message: On Monday evening, the famous daniel defoe died in his apartment near Carnart Avenue.
Extended data:
Personality assessment
Defoe lived in the period of capitalist development. He belongs to the bourgeoisie, and he is the spokesman of the upper-middle class bourgeoisie.
Defoe's greatest concern in his life is the development of capitalism. He spoke highly of the bourgeoisie. He believes that the core issue of a country's development is the development of trade. "Give us trade, you give us everything" and "Trade is the life of world prosperity", which is his most fundamental proposition.
Because he thinks that trade has developed manufacturing and navigation, people have jobs, clothes and food, so materials can keep high prices and high rents, so the upper class also benefits. As long as industrious people develop trade, any place will prosper.
All his economic works and part of his political works have given full play to this proposition and put forward many concrete suggestions. Defoe's thought of developing economy is beneficial to the development of British society. However, he enthusiastically supported the colonial system, proposed ways to seize and manage colonies, proposed ways to expand trade with backward ethnic groups, and supported the slave trade. All this shows his class limitations.
References:
Daniel defoe-Baidu encyclopedia