MOLL FLANDERS

　　Daniel Defoe was born Daniel Foe in London in 1660. It wasperhaps, ineveitable that Defoe, an outspoken man, would become apolitical journalist. As a Puritan he believed God had given him amission to print the truth, that is, to proselytize on religion andpolitics, and in fact, he became a prolific pamphleteer satirizingthe hypocrisies of both Church and State. Defoe admired WilliamIII, and his poem The True-Born Englishman (1701) won him theKing's friendship. But an ill-timed satire on High Churchextremists, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, published duringQueen Anne's reign, resulted in his being pilloried and imprisonedfor seditious libel in 1703.　　At fifty-nine Defoe turned to fiction, completing The Life andStrange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719), partlybased on the saga of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor; MollFlanders (1722); Colonel Jack (1722); A Journal of the Plague Years(1722); and Roxana or the Fortunate Mistress (1724).