If you look at Defoe's life before writing "Crusoe", it's hard to deny a political reading. Though he had some short-lived success as a businessman, Defoe became known to the public as a poet and a political pamphleteer who was a sharp critic of the reigning monarchs of his time, and occasionally worked as a spy in the name of the causes he supported. It was his writing that ended up causing him to be imprisoned for several months in 1703, a few years before the book came out.
Considering the book sold well, he should have been well-off, but 18th century writers were not paid royalties but small, flat fees for their work. Which explains Defoe's profligacy, although the vast majority of his works besides "Crusoe", "Moll Flanders" and 'A Journal Of The Plague Year" are not known to the public today except to scholars of him.
If you look at Defoe's life before writing "Crusoe", it's hard to deny a political reading. Though he had some short-lived success as a businessman, Defoe became known to the public as a poet and a political pamphleteer who was a sharp critic of the reigning monarchs of his time, and occasionally worked as a spy in the name of the causes he supported. It was his writing that ended up causing him to be imprisoned for several months in 1703, a few years before the book came out.
Considering the book sold well, he should have been well-off, but 18th century writers were not paid royalties but small, flat fees for their work. Which explains Defoe's profligacy, although the vast majority of his works besides "Crusoe", "Moll Flanders" and 'A Journal Of The Plague Year" are not known to the public today except to scholars of him.
Moll Flanders is very popular in the UK as popular as Crusoe it was even made into a successful mini-series.