Daniel Defoe went bankrupt multiple times, was pilloried for seditious writing, and worked as a secret agent for the British government — spying on Scottish political movements while pretending to be a journalist. He then wrote Robinson Crusoe at fifty-nine, invented the English novel, and died hiding from creditors. The father of English fiction lived a life more picaresque than anything he put on paper.

This episode traces Defoe from his Dissenter childhood through the bankruptcies, the pillory, the espionage career, and the late-life novel that accidentally created a new literary form.

• Defoe's Dissenter origins and the serial business failures that defined his early career
• The pillory for seditious pamphlets and the secret deal with the government that followed
• The espionage career — spying on Scotland while po ...