Robinson Crusoe [antikvár]

Introduction Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) was a journalist. People had become interested in news during the Civil War between Parliament and the king (1642-1646), when it was important to know the latest events. When Charles II came back from Europe in 1660 as king, there was a greatly increased interest in news of happenings, not only in England, but in other countries. News and views about government, right and wrong, truth and values were read by more and more people in newspapers and a growing number of periodicals. Defoe was a leader in this development of periodicals. In 1704 he started The Review. It began as "A review of the affairs of France and of all Europe", and it came out three times a week. Most of the matter in it was written by Defoe himself. He expressed his views on subjects of interest in Britain as well as on the Continent, and this expression of views on political and other matters has led to the development of the "leading article" to be found in most newspapers and periodicals today. He didn't try to be a writer of "literature". His writing is simple, and he presents the facts (as he sees them) without dressing them up in fine language. That is not to say that he couldn't laugh at his readers: in his Shortest Way with Dissenters (1702) he expressed the view that the best thing to do with dissenters (people who did not belong to the