...ined the cron in 1688 because his ife as the deposed James II. sister provoked hostility through favours shon to his Dutch folloers. In this set of verses Defoe sets out his judgement on misconceived patriotism. His enterprises required long journeys in Britain and on the Continent like his fictional heroes he kne the orld. Like Robinson he as ambitious and also overadventurous. His fortunes varied. In 1694 Foe added the De to suggest higher status. riting for conservative publications Defoe spied for the liberal Government. Many believe him to be an unreliable opportunist. Beteen 1697 and 1701 Defoe served as a secret agent for illiam III. in England and Scotland, and beteen 1703 and 1714 for Harley and other ministers. hen I read this point I asked myself hether there as any English riter in the 17th century ho did not serve as a secret agent for example Marloe, Shakespeare,... Defoe as a pamphleteer, a journalist and a novel-riter. His literary ork covers an almost incredible number of publications He rote about 500 books on a ide variety of topics, including politics, geography, crime, religion, economics for example the Complete English Tradesman, marriage, psychology and superstition. 1702 Defoe rote the brilliant pamphlet The Shortest ay ith the Dissenters. This parodied a bigoted churchman urging savage punishments for Dissenters. For that pamphlet Defoe as sentenced to be pilloried. He refused to hide aay and published the Hymn to the Pillory. Because of this hymn he as orshipped as a hero by the crod, among hom the hymn as selling rapidly.Yet the affair bankrupted his business. In 1704, deriving the benefit of his large experience and many connections, Defoe set up the eekly journal The Revie, and became the orlds first journalist. Defoes later, fictional prose is situated at the beginning of the novelistic tradition. Let me mention the The fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders 1722 , a pseudo-biographical story ith a female narrator .Defoe is renoned especially for his first novel The life and strange surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, mariner, ritten in 1719. It as published on 25th April and as an immediate success. A second edition appeared on 12th May and to further editions by the end of the year. The first sequel of this book as The farther adventures of Robinson Crusoe Being the second and last part of his life, published in 1719, hich sends Crusoe on his travel back again to the island as a colonist. The third part of the trilogy as published in August 1720 and as called Serious reflections during the life and surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe ith his vision of the angelic orld. The second and the third of the trilogy ere, in comparison to the first part of diminishing interest. PlotRobinson Crusoe is presented as a retrospection by an old man on his adventurous life and his experiences on a number of sea voyages. The period covered is about 35 years. The story starts hen Crusoe is 18 years old.Crusoe, son of a merchant, coming from Bremen, ent abroad upon adventure against his fathers arnings. He gets shiprecked during his first sea-voyage and falls captive to a Moorish pirate on his second Guinea-voyage. Rescued by a Portuguese ship he is taken to Brazil here he succeeds as a planter. After four years, he undertakes a ne voyage to Guinea to buy slaves for the plantations. Also this travel ends in shipreck. Crusoe is cast, alone, on the shore of an uninhabited island off the mouth of the Orinoco River in South America Venezuela. Robinson describes in detail the measures he takes for his immediate survival, and then his groing command of his situation. He makes tools, clothes, equipment and even a fortress, hile reflecting on his life, and this leads him gradually to religious faith. Robinson organises his life by making a calendar and making notations about the eather. He gros corn and makes bread. He even constructs a boat. After more than 20 years of loneliness, Crusoe is one day terrified to come on the remains of a cannibal feast. During a later cannibal raid he rescues an intended victim and trains him as his servant, naming him Friday after the day of his rescue. Robinson teaches Friday necessary ords in English beginning ith Master, yes and no and some estern habits for example ho to eat, to dress and converts him into the Christian religion. Together they save a Spanish captain and also Fridays father from a cannibal feast, and learn that the Spaniards cre have escaped to the mainland, hither the Spanish captain and Fridays father are sent to bring them to the island. Before they return, hoever, Crusoe and Friday rescue an English captain and to other victims from the mutinous cre of an English ship, the mutineers are overcome, the captain restored, and the ship lands Crusoe after 35 years absence, together ith the faithful Friday in Europe. Back in Europe, Robinson discovers that his parents have died. In Lisbon he receives the proceeds of the plantation in Brazil. Because he is become afraid of the risks of a sea voyage, he travels back to his native country over land In London, Robinson sells his overseas plantations and becomes a rich man. He marries and becomes father of three children. But hen his ife dies, he resumes his former adventurous activities and travels to East Indies as a tradesman. On this trip, he visits the island as its governor and oner and learns that the Spaniards have continued and expanded the colonisation. He supports them. As the book ends Crusoe half-promises a further instalment of the island story and further adventures.BackgroundThe adventures of Crusoe on his island, the main part of Defoes book ere based on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor ho as the prototype of the marooned traveller. Daniel Defoe loved travel stories. Therefore he must have had read about Alexander Selkirk, a sailor ho had survived five years of a solitary existence on a desert island Juan Fernandez Island near Chile. Selkirk had been left behind there at his on request after a quarrel ith his captain. The Selkirk story as a sensation. The public as fascinated by the ay this man had survived. Defoe used the story to rite his on novel. In applying the genre of the fictional autobiography, he retained the suggestion of authenticity.The genreAccording to att 1957 is Robinson Crusoe regarded not only as a classic travel and adventure story, but as the prototype of the novel, the literary genre that focuses on the daily, external and internal activities of ordinary people. Hume said 1986 It is one of the first English novels and is created out of a synthesis of to existing traditions the picaresque autobiographical novel, and the tradition of the personal journal representing mental states and evolutions. Thus, the plot is throughout interpreted and commented on by the narrating I-figure. As such, the novel is also an internal journey, a creation of an identity, a composition of...
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