If the novel as a literary form can be said to have been launched with Robinson Crusoe (1719), then it started with lies. The ponderous plot summary on the title page of the original edition ends with the pert declaration, "Written by Himself". Daniel Defoe is named nowhere in the text, although it can be assumed that he is the anonymous "Editor" vouching for the authenticity of the document in the preface.
The book became wildly popular but also created many detractors who threatened to call the editor's bluff. Defoe was undeterred - as a journalist, he must have known only too well that no publicity is bad publicity. He wrote The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, followed by Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,where he continued to speak in character. These two texts are masterly exercises in ambiguity - Crusoe teases the reader with the connections between his life and that of his mysterious creator. In Serious Reflections, Crusoe's account has become an "Allegorick History" of the life of the author, nay of every human being. Aren't we all trapped in the islands of our sinful minds? If readers cannot make out this connection, they are, well, damned. Defoe certainly knew how to handle trolls.
Who was this Defoe? Was "Defoe" a pseudonym, given that his father was a James Foe? The false name may have been necessary for a man who created enemies with his political pamphlets, had creditors and bailiffs trying to track him down, and is said to have acted as a spy. Running from the law most of the time, Defoe used the ruse of Robinson Crusoe to express his opinion while staying out of the public eye. Crusoe did a lot of saving for Defoe, protecting him from the police, acting as his personal confessor, and, most important, earning money for his perpetually broke master.
J.M. Coetzee made Defoe into "Foe" in his version of Crusoe's story. Was he inherently faux, a charlatan? Whoever Defoe was, no one was better suited to introduce the art of fictioneering than this elusive man, who blithely spewed true lies while fleeing his creditors.
