Defoe used to run a business, run a factory, went bankrupt many times (and went to prison for debt), and started again many times. It was not until I was nearly 60 years old that I began to publish the landmark Robinson Crusoe (17 19). Through Robinson's fascinating adventure legend, the novel successfully shapes a pioneer image with rising assets and ranks, and carries forward Robinson's spirit of initiative and dedication. Once the novel came out, it caused a great sensation in Britain, and Robinson was almost a household name.
Later Defoe published another adventure novel, Captain singleton (1720). According to what I saw and heard in prison, I wrote some novels describing the sufferings of lower-class women, such as Moore Flanders (1722) and Roxana (1724).
In the history of English literature, Defoe was the first writer to push the vagrant novels popular in 16 and 17 centuries into modern novels. First of all, his novels let the hero tell his legendary story in the form of diary or memoir, and through the hero's unremitting self-improvement in adversity, it reflects the complex relationship between the environment and the characters. This is an important concern of modern novels. Furthermore, corresponding to the content transformation is Defoe's realism of reality. This pursuit of reality is also a step towards modern novels. Defoe is also known as the pioneer of modern novels, because he endowed tramp novels with certain ideological depth and embodied the values of assets, grades and levels.