An island paradise
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We all know about Robinson Crusoe, or at least we think we do. We know about the shipwreck and the years alone on the island and the footprint in the sand and "Man Friday".
Reading the book for the first time, after years of receiving it via the TV and the cinema, in heavily abridged or heavily revised versions, I was amazed to discover how much more there is to find.
The first joy is Defoe's prose, written with all the urgency and precision of a lifelong pamphleteer. Defoe never leaves any doubt as to what his character is trying to say or why he is trying to say it.
The second joy is the pacing. In the brief sections before and after his time on the island, Crusoe undergoes multiple shipwrecks, capture by pirates, escape from slavery, the life of a Brazilian plantation owner, the putting down of a mutiny and even an attack by wolves. Any one of these events could serve quite happily as the climax of another story. As it is, the only time the pace slows is during Crusoe's sojourn on the island and that is only appropriate to his condition.
The greatest joy of the book, though, is Crusoe himself. This is a very real character with very real failings. He is frequently arrogant, unthinking or even plain stupid but wins us over with the good grace with which he admits his faults. One minute he is praising the quality of his newly baked pots, the next laughing at himself for spending months on building a canoe too large and too far from shore for him ever to be able to drag it to the sea. All the while he struggles to give some meaning to his isolation, a meaning he chooses to find in his own vision of God (a God that, by remarkable coincidence, exactly mirrors Defoe's own, nonconformist vision of his Almighty). It's not an endeavour of which Richard Dawkins - or indeed I - would necessarily approve but it's certainly one appropriate to Crusoe's time and personality.
Robinson Crusoe has been analysed as a prototypical text of British imperialism, a moral text, a religious text and even a Marxist text. It has drawn the attention of Rousseau, Wilkie Collins, Coetzee and Joyce among thousands of others. Having read it, one suddenly sees why. The only thing it lacks is the wonderful theme music from the 1960s TV series.
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Lengthy, but worth it
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The original Robinson Crusoe story is said to have been told by an old sailor in a dark bar in Bristol, and said to be his own. Daniel Defoe heard closely and used it to inspire his novel. Modern authors (like French Le Clezio) made their versions a lot shorter, simpler, well, for kids. Defoe's work is of another dimension, much closer to reality.
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Part Ray Mears Bush Craft, Part Religious Meditation
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Acknowledged to be one of (if not the) first novel, the unexpurgated version of Robinson Crusoe is nothing like the childrens' book that most people grow up with. For starters, the vast majority of pages in the Penguin version are about the practicalities of living alone on a deserted island, including details accounts of catching, enclosing and raising goats, planting crops and strengthening his shelters. As other reviewers have said, this does become repetitive and it's not helped that Defoe interserpeses it with paragraphs wherein Robinson considers the nature of God and the road to salvation. Yes, Crusoe does become a more devout Christian as a result of staying on the island, but it's telling that this starts because of a terror that he's about to die and what will happen to him when he does.
The book begins with an account of Crusoe's upbringing, his determination to go to sea in the face of parental objection and a disastrous voyage that sees him sold into slavery. On his escape (helped by a fellow slave who Crusoe in turn sells into slavery!), he's rescued by a Portugese captain and taken to Brazil where he starts a plantation before his wanderlust takes hold again and he embarks on a voyage to buy slaves in Guinea, a voyage that ends in the shipwreck that leaves him stuck on an island for 28 years.
The casual attitude towards slavery may make modern readers uncomfortable. I was certainly shocked by the way Crusoe on several occassions wishes he had some slaves to work for him and his relationship with Friday is certainly one of benevolent white man bringing God to the savage.
The plot only really gets going in the final 80 pages when Defore introduces cannibals and deserters and has Crusoe engage in two daring rescues. Even now these sections are entertaining and the action really gathers speed as we follow Crusoe's deliverance back to civilisation and ending with a peculiar almost postscript of what happens when he decides to travel by land instead of sea and is attacked by ravenous wolves.
The novel is definitely worth a look, but will likely be unpalatable to some modern readers because of the extensive (and somewhat unconvincing) religious meditations.
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Traditional and factual. Hard to complete comapared to modern novels
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Robinson Crusoe is claimed to be one of the first novel's written in English (1719) and is a fictional autobiography of a man who is from a very average family in England at that time. The story moves from the main characters moving out of his family home and travelling the seas to his eventual shipwreck off the American coast.
I read this book over an extended period of time due to exams in School but also because they book is very laborious with a completely different style of writing to contemporary writers. At times it is written very factually that reminded me of a non-fiction book such as the treatment of certain animals and how to tame them.
For looking into how literature started and an abstract insight into general life in these times, the first part of the book, the story can be of relevance and provide enough stimulation to finish. Also as many reviewers have mentioned before the novel is also allegorical with the classic shipwrecked story on one level and the deep insight into humanity and how humans behave on the other. Despite some believing that this second level of thought provides more entertainment to the story and makes the book worth reading I personally did not find that stimulating.
However despite its downfalls I still believe Robinson Crusoe to be worth reading for its literature value (as in what the book did for literature, moving it along etc), but it also captures the practical issues with being stuck on a desert island very well. If looking for a page-turner I wouldn't advise this book but the storyline is still appealing.
Other links: Defoe went on to write a lesser known sequel: The further adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
Film: Castaway
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Open your eyes.
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Just a quickie. Some of the above reviews remind us of how slow and boring this book can be and how repetitive. Well, guys, that's the point. How exciting do you suppose being stranded alone on an Island can be? What would you do to pass the time? Defoe takes us back to a time before T.V etc. Your day would be boring, although eventually menial tasks save ones sanity. Time does pass slowly as it looses relavance. It's not a classic for nothing.
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