The Literature Book

94

I WAS BORN IN THE

YEAR 1632 IN THE

CITY OF YORK

OF A GOOD FAMILY

ROBINSON CRUSOE (1719), DANIEL DEFOE

C

onstructing the narrative

of a literary text around

a fictional autobiography

is a device that not only enables

a writer to tell the tale of the life

of an individual as if that person

were the author but also gives the

impression that the words spoken

are a direct transcription of actual

events. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson

Crusoe (originally titled The

Life and Strange Surprizing

Adventures of Robinson Crusoe)

was the progenitor of this fictional

autobiographical voice. A number

of other notable 18th- and 19th-

century characters followed Crusoe,

including Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver,

Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, and

Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield.

The title page of the first edition

of Robinson Crusoe did not cite

Defoe as the author: instead,

the words “Written by Himself”

appeared beneath the title—and

so readers may well have imagined

the story to be true. The book’s

opening sentence, which begins

“I was born in the year 1632,”

suggests that this is a real tale

recounted by the individual who

experienced these adventures.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Fictional autobiography

AFTER

1726 Gulliver’s Travels, by

Anglo-Irish author Jonathan

Swift, is published as a

traveler’s tale and fictional

autobiography and becomes

an immediate success.

1740 English author Samuel

Richardson publishes Pamela,

a fictional autobiography that

chronicles the life of its lead

character, a maidservant,

through a series of letters.

1749 The comic novel

autobiography Tom Jones, by

English writer Henry Fielding,

is published and follows the

adventures of a high-spirited

foundling boy.

1849–50 David Copperfield,

by English author Charles

Dickens, is published; although

a fictional work, the life of the

main protagonist has close

parallels to Dickens’ own.

Daniel Defoe

Daniel Foe is thought to have

been born in London in 1660 (he

later added the prefix “De” to

his name). In 1684 he married

Mary Tuffley, then spent many

years as a businessman and

merchant, but went bankrupt

in 1692. In 1697, he became a

confidant of King William III

and traveled Britain as a secret

agent. In 1702, his pamphlet The

Shortest-Way with the Dissenters

led to his imprisonment, due to

its political content, and to a

second bankruptcy. Released

thanks to politician Robert

Harley, Defoe acted as Harley’s

spy, traveling around Britain and

reporting back on public

opinion. Defoe did not turn to

novel writing until his late 50s,

and became a key figure in the

construction of the form, finding

great success with Robinson

Crusoe. Defoe died in 1731.

Other key works

1722 Moll Flanders

1722 A Journal of the

Plague Year

1724 Roxana

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