Daniel Defoe. Fact or Fiction

Alexander Livergant is a literary scholar, translator, editor-in-chief of the journal "Foreign Literature", professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities. He is the author of biographies of R. Kipling, S. Maugham, O. Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald, H. Miller, G. Greene, Virginia Woolf, P. G. Wodehouse, and Agatha Christie. It's hard to believe that the hero of his new book is one person. Who hasn't he been! An unfulfilled "man of God" (he dropped out of the spiritual academy) — later becoming a preacher and author of moralistic treatises. A courtier and a patriot — and at the same time a rebel (he participated in the rebellion against James II) and a freethinker (he was tried, sentenced to the pillory, and imprisoned). A spy and a secret government agent — gathering information and researching political sentiments in Scotland. An enterprising businessman (he traded in candles and meat, stockings and perfumes, wine, tobacco, and even cats) — and at the same time a perpetual bankrupt, hiding from creditors. A traveler and seafarer — he experienced all sorts of adventures: both on land (cannibals, wild beasts) and at sea (storms, shipwrecks, pirates, mutinies)… He was a biographer (writing about figures from Peter the Great to criminals), a historian (from "The History of Charles XII's Wars" to "Universal History of Trade"), a novelist (author of five "bildungsromans" — adventure, historical, picaresque) and a poet, journalist, and newspaper publisher… But for all of us, perhaps, he is — and for this, we are forever grateful to him — the author of "Robinson Crusoe."