The first British novelist?

In an effort to stimulate interactivity, any comments or disagreements to the following would be welcome EVB

Some say Richardson, some say Fielding, but I say Defoe.
Born in 1659, the son of a London Butcher, well educated and destined for the Dissenting church, he rebelled and made a living as a stocking wholesaler. A prolific writer of politial pamphlets he found himself at one time pelted in the stocks. His Robinson Crusoe written when he was sixty, could not at first find a publisher. It propounded the 'back to nature movement'and self sufficiency well ahead of its time. [Almost like TV's Good Life] The narrative was, of course, inspired by the real four month isolation of Alexander Selkirk. [Check your newspaper for story ideas] It is written so convincingly that the reader cannot but believe that a real castaway is describing things.In some ways it might be likened to Rousseau's notion of the noble savage. Defoe's Moll Flanders traces the path of a woman 'on the make' and 'on the game', railing at the hypocracy of the treatment of women and womens' exploitation of sex. He advocated a national relief system for the poor and points to the injustice of the parochial system with it's requirement of being a local resident, which in fact sets Moll on her adventures.[ Could you get started by an injustice?] The theme of Moll Flanders might be considered to run parallel to Voltaire's later Candide in which every disaster possible in a wicked world befalls a young man and yet Cunegonde, his separated object of desire, survives all. This is written like a travel diary, a form pupular at that period, so may not count as a novel. Defoe, a prolific writer and ardent Whig and supporter of the Union with Scotland, never the less, at one time, wrote for a Tory news sheet!
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