The sheer weight of numbers is astounding. Daniel Defoe wrote over five hundred and sixty works of fiction, nonfiction prose, and poetry. His best-known novels were composed within five years of each other, three of them in 1722 alone. He penned millions of words in the last fifteen years of his life, after he left fiction behind, words scribbled in quill and ink and laboriously translated into hand-set type. Defoe's subjects were myriad: histories, travel books, guides to moral and societal conduct, proposals for improving society and industry, and biographies enough to fill a small library.

Defoe's span of influence is equally astounding. He has been dubbed variously the father of the novel and of modern journalism. Today he is largely known for several novels, the most famous being The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Next in line to these are The Fortunes and Misfortunes of...