什麼是狄福

Defoe, Daniel，原名Daniel Foe。

英國小說家、新聞工作者和小冊子寫作者。為受過良好教育的倫敦商人，後來成為觀察敏銳的經濟理論家，並開始針對公共事務撰寫滔滔雄辯、機智和大膽的小冊子。1703年因發表一首諷刺詩而被關進監獄，同時生意也垮了。此後一邊寫作，一邊擔任政府的祕密情報員周遊各地。1704～1713年他一手包辦《評論》（Review）週報的稿件，這是一份嚴肅、有影響力的報紙，對後來定期刊物的文章影響很大，如《旁觀者》（The Spectator）。在遊歷了幾次蘇格蘭之後，出版了《不列顛全島紀遊》（Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724～1726，3卷）。晚年轉寫小說。長篇小說《魯濱遜漂流記》（Robinson Crusoe, 1719）為他取得永垂不朽的名聲，這是根據一些航海家和流亡者的經歷來寫的。他也以生動描寫歹徒為題材的《摩爾.法蘭德斯》（Moll Flanders, 1922）而聞名；還著有非小說《大疫年日記》（Journal of the Plague Year, 1722），描述1664～1665年發生的倫敦大瘟疫（Great Plague）；以及《羅珊娜 》（Roxana, 1724），是現代小說的原型。

1660～1731年

Defoe, Daniel

British novelist, pamphleteer, and journalist. A well-educated london merchant, he became an acute economic theorist and began to write eloquent, witty, often audacious tracts on public affairs. A satire he published resulted in his being imprisoned in 1703, and his business collapsed. He traveled as a government secret agent while continuing to write prolifically. In 1704-13 he wrote practically single-handedly the periodical Review, a serious and forceful paper that influenced later essay periodicals such as The Spectator. His Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (3 vols., 1724-26) followed several trips to Scotland. Late in life he turned to fiction. He achieved literary immortality with the novel Robinson Crusoe (1719), which drew partly on memoirs of voyagers and castaways. He is also remembered for the vivid, picaresque Moll Flanders (1722); the nonfictional Journal of the Plague Year (1722), on the Great Plague in London in 1664-65; and Roxana (1724), a prototype of the modern novel.