Daniel Defoe went bankrupt multiple times, was pilloried for seditious writing, and worked as a secret agent for the British government — spying on Scottish political movements while pretending to be a journalist. He then wrote Robinson Crusoe at fifty-nine, invented the English novel, and died hiding from creditors. The father of English fiction lived a life more picaresque than anything he put on paper.
This episode traces Defoe from his Dissenter childhood through the bankruptcies, the pillory, the espionage career, and the late-life novel that accidentally created a new literary form.
Defoe's Dissenter origins and the serial business failures that defined his early career
The pillory for seditious pamphlets and the secret deal with the government that followed
The espionage career — spying on Scotland while posing as a journalist
Robinson Crusoe at fifty-nine and the accidental invention of the English novel
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