Editing Daniel Defoe (section)

=== Novels ===
==== ''Robinson Crusoe'' ====
[[File:Daniel Defoe former house England.jpg|thumb|A house where Defoe once lived, near London, England]]
Published in 1719, when Defoe was in his late fifties,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Minto |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013179902 |title=Daniel Defoe |publisher=Harper & Bros. |year=1879 |location=New York |language=en |oclc=562533988}}</ref> ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' relates the story of a man's shipwreck on a desert island for twenty-eight years and his subsequent adventures. Throughout its episodic narrative, Crusoe's struggles with faith are apparent as he bargains with God in times of life-threatening crises, but time and again he turns his back after his deliverances. He is finally content with his lot in life, separated from society, following a more genuine conversion experience.

In the opening pages of ''[[The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe]]'', the author describes how Crusoe settled in [[Bedfordshire]], married and produced a family, and that when his wife died, he went off on these further adventures. Bedford is also the place where the brother of "H. F." in ''A Journal of the Plague Year'' retired to avoid the danger of the plague, so that by implication, if these works were not fiction, Defoe's family met Crusoe in Bedford, from whence the information in these books was gathered. Defoe went to school in Newington Green with a friend named Caruso.

The novel has been assumed to be based in part on the story of the Scottish castaway [[Alexander Selkirk]], who spent four years stranded in the [[Juan Fernández Islands]],<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> but his experience is inconsistent with the details of the narrative.{{Cn|date=August 2024}}  The island Selkirk lived on, Más a Tierra (Closer to Land) was renamed [[Robinson Crusoe Island]] in 1966. It has also been supposed that Defoe may have also been inspired by a translation of a book by the [[Al-Andalus|Andalusian-Arab]] Muslim polymath [[Ibn Tufail]], who was known as "Abubacer" in Europe. The Latin edition was entitled ''[[Hayy ibn Yaqdhan|Philosophus Autodidactus]]'';<ref>Nawal Muhammad Hassan (1980), ''Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: A study of an early Arabic impact on English literature'', Al-Rashid House for Publication.</ref><ref>Cyril Glassé (2001), ''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'', Rowman Altamira, p. 202, {{ISBN|0-7591-0190-6}}.</ref><ref name="Amber">{{Cite journal |last=Haque |first=Amber |year=2004 |title=Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists |journal=Journal of Religion and Health |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=357–377 [369] |doi=10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z |jstor=27512819 |s2cid=38740431}}</ref><ref name="Wainwright">Martin Wainwright (22 March 2003) [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,918454,00.html Desert island scripts], ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref> [[Simon Ockley]] published an English translation in 1708, entitled ''The improvement of human reason, exhibited in the life of Hai ebn Yokdhan''.

==== ''Captain Singleton'' ====
Defoe's next novel was ''[[Captain Singleton]]'' (1720), an adventure story whose first half covers a traversal of Africa which anticipated subsequent discoveries by [[David Livingstone]] and whose second half taps into the contemporary fascination with [[piracy]]. The novel has been commended for its sensitive depiction of the close relationship between the hero and his religious mentor, [[Quaker]] William Walters. Its description of the geography of Africa and some of its fauna does not use the language or knowledge of a fiction writer and suggests an eyewitness experience.

==== ''Memoirs of a Cavalier'' ====
''[[Memoirs of a Cavalier]]'' (1720) is set during the [[Thirty Years' War]] and the [[English Civil War]].

==== ''A Journal of the Plague Year'' ====
''[[A Journal of the Plague Year]]'', published in 1722, can be read both as novel and as nonfiction. It is an account of the [[Great Plague of London]] in 1665, which is undersigned by the initials "H. F.", suggesting the author's uncle Henry Foe as its primary source. It is a historical account of the events based on extensive research and written as if by an eyewitness, even though Defoe was only about five years old when it occurred.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Zimmerman |first=Everett |title=H. F.'s Meditations: A Journal of the Plague Year |journal=PMLA |date=1972 |volume=87 |issue=3 |pages=417–423 |doi=10.2307/460900 |jstor=460900 |s2cid=164093586}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Mayer |first=Robert |title=The Reception of a Journal of the Plague Year and the Nexus of Fiction and History in the Novel |journal=ELH |date=1990 |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=529–555 |doi=10.2307/2873233 |jstor=2873233}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Seager |first=Nicholas |title=Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics: Epistemology and Fiction in Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" |journal=Modern Language Review |date=2008 |volume=103 |issue=3 |pages=639–653 |doi=10.1353/mlr.2008.0112 |id={{Gale|A181463661}} {{Project MUSE|824837}} |jstor=20467902 |s2cid=246643865}}</ref><ref>Nicholson, Watson, ''The Historical Sources of Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year'', Boston: The Stratford Co., 1919.</ref>

==== ''Colonel Jack'' ====
''[[Colonel Jack]]'' (1722) follows an orphaned boy from a life of poverty and crime to prosperity in the colonies, military and marital imbroglios, and religious conversion, driven by a problematic notion of becoming a "gentleman."

==== ''Moll Flanders'' ====
Also in 1722, Defoe wrote ''[[Moll Flanders]]'', another first-person [[picaresque novel]] of the fall and eventual redemption, both material and spiritual, of a lone woman in 17th-century England. The titular heroine appears as a whore, bigamist and thief, lives in [[Liberty of the Mint|The Mint]], commits adultery and incest, and yet manages to retain the reader's sympathy. Her savvy manipulation of both men and wealth earns her a life of trials but ultimately an ending in reward. Although Moll struggles with the morality of some of her actions and decisions, religion seems to be far from her concerns throughout most of her story. However, like Robinson Crusoe, she finally repents. ''Moll Flanders'' is an important work in the development of the novel, as it challenged the common perception of femininity and gender roles in 18th-century British society.<ref name="Novak 2001"/> Although it was not intended as a work of [[erotica]], later generations came to view it as such.<ref name="historyextra">{{Cite web |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/moll-the-life-and-times-of-moll-flanders/ |title=Moll: The Life and Times of Moll Flanders |website=History Extra |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428084347/https://www.historyextra.com/period/moll-the-life-and-times-of-moll-flanders/ |archive-date=28 April 2019 |access-date=30 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Kibbie |first=Ann Louise |title=Monstrous Generation: The Birth of Capital in Defoe's Moll Flanders and Roxana |journal=PMLA |date=1995 |volume=110 |issue=5 |pages=1023–1034 |doi=10.2307/463027 |jstor=463027 |s2cid=163996973}}</ref>

==== ''Roxana'' ====
Defoe's final novel, ''[[Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress]]'' (1724), which narrates the moral and spiritual decline of a high society courtesan, differs from other Defoe works because the main character does not exhibit a conversion experience, even though she claims to be a penitent later in her life, at the time that she is relating her story.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dangerous Women, Libertine Epicures, and the Rise of Sensibility, 1670–1730|first=Laura|last=Linker|publisher=Taylor & Francis|edition=ebook|date=2016|page=118}}</ref>

==== Patterns ====
In Defoe's writings, especially in his fiction, are traits that can be seen across his works. Defoe was well known for his [[didacticism]], with most of his works aiming to convey a message of some kind to the readers (typically a moral one, stemming from his religious background).<ref>{{cite thesis |id={{ProQuest|302359591}} |last1=Kropf |first1=Carl Raymond |year=1968 |title=Defoe as a Puritan Novelist}}</ref> Connected to Defoe's didacticism is his use of the genre of [[spiritual autobiography]], particularly in ''Robinson Crusoe''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Starr |first1=G. A. |title=Defoe & spiritual autobiography |year=1971 |orig-year=1965 |publisher=Gordian Press |isbn=0-87752-138-7 |location=New York |oclc=219753}}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref> Another common feature of Defoe's fictional works is that he claimed they were true stories of their subjects.