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Robinson Crusoe

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels

   CAPTION: Title Robinson Crusoe

   Title page from the first edition
     Author    Daniel Defoe
     Country   England
    Language   English
    Publisher
    Released
   Followed by The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

   Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1719 and
   sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. The book is a
   fictional autobiography of the title character, an English castaway who
   spends 28 years on a remote island, encountering natives, captives, and
   mutineers before being rescued. This device, presenting an account of
   supposedly factual events, is known as a " false document", and gives a
   realistic frame story. The story was probably influenced by the
   real-life events of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway marooned on
   a Pacific island (currently Alexander Selkirk Island, Chile) for four
   years.

   The full title of the novel is The Life and Strange Surprising
   Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: who lived Eight and
   Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the coast of
   America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been
   cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself.
   With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pirates.
   Written by Himself.

Plot summary

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   Crusoe leaves England setting sail from the Queens Dock in Hull on a
   sea voyage in September, 1651, against the wishes of his parents. The
   ship is taken over by Salè pirates and Crusoe becomes the slave of a
   Moor. He manages to escape with a boat and is befriended by the Captain
   of a Portuguese ship off the western coast of Africa. The ship is en
   route to Brazil. There with the help of the captain, Crusoe becomes
   owner of a plantation.

   He joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa, but he is
   shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an island near
   the mouth of the Orinoco river on September 30, 1659. His companions
   all die; he manages to fetch arms, tools and other supplies from the
   ship before it breaks apart and sinks. He proceeds to build a fenced-in
   habitation and cave, keeps a calendar by making marks in a wooden cross
   he builds. He hunts, grows corn, learns to make pottery, raises goats,
   etc. He reads the Bible and suddenly becomes religious, thanking God
   for his fate in which nothing is missing but society.

   He discovers native cannibals occasionally visit the island to kill and
   eat prisoners. At first he plans to kill the savages for their
   abomination, but then he realizes that he has no right to do so as the
   cannibals have not attacked him and do not knowingly commit a crime. He
   dreams of capturing one or two servants by freeing some prisoners, and
   indeed, when a prisoner manages to escape, Crusoe helps him, naming his
   new companion "Friday" after the day of the week he appeared, and
   teaches him English and converts him to Christianity.

   After another party of natives arrive to partake in a grisly feast,
   Crusoe and Friday manage to kill most of the natives and save two of
   the prisoners. One is Friday's father and the other is a Spaniard, who
   informs Crusoe that there are other Spaniards shipwrecked on the
   mainland. A plan is devised where the Spaniard would return with
   Friday's father to the mainland and bring back the others, build a
   ship, and sail to a Spanish port.

   Before the Spaniards return, an English ship appears; mutineers have
   taken control of the ship and intend to maroon their former captain on
   the island. The captain and Crusoe manage to retake the ship. They
   leave for England, leaving behind three of the mutineers to fend for
   themselves and inform the Spaniards what happened. Crusoe leaves the
   island on December 19, 1686. He travels to Portugal to find his old
   friend, the captain, who informs him that his Brazilian plantation was
   well cared for and he has become wealthy. From Portugal, he travels
   overland to England, to avoid mishaps at sea, via Spain and France;
   during winter in the Pyrenees, he and his companions have to fend off
   an attack by vicious wolves. Back in England, he decides to sell his
   plantation, as returning to Brazil would entail converting to
   Catholicism. Later in life, after marrying, having three children and
   becoming widowed, he returns to his island for a last time. The book
   ends with a hint about a sequel that would detail his return to the
   island, which had been discovered.

Reception and sequels

   Plaque 'commemorating' Robinson Crusoe's departure from Hull - "Had I
   the sense to return to Hull, I had been Happy..."
   Plaque 'commemorating' Robinson Crusoe's departure from Hull - "Had I
   the sense to return to Hull, I had been Happy..."

   The book was first published on April 25, 1719. The positive reception
   was immediate and universal. Before the end of the year, this first
   volume had run through four editions. Within years, it had reached an
   audience as wide as any book ever written in English.

   By the end of the 19th century, no book in the history of Western
   literature had spawned more editions, spin-offs, and translations (even
   into languages such as Inuit, Coptic, and Maltese) than Robinson
   Crusoe, with more than 700 such alternative versions, including
   children's versions with mainly pictures and no text. There have been
   hundreds of adaptations in dozens of languages, from The Swiss Family
   Robinson to Luis Buñuel's film adaptation. J.M. Coetzee's 1986 novel,
   Foe, is a reimagining, retelling, and reevaluation of the story. The
   term " Robinsonade" has even been coined to describe the various
   spin-offs of Robinson Crusoe.

   Defoe went on to write a lesser-known sequel, The Further Adventures of
   Robinson Crusoe. It was intended to be the last part of his stories,
   according to the original title-page of its first edition, but in fact
   a third part, entitled Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, was
   written; it is a mostly forgotten series of moral essays with Crusoe's
   name attached to give interest.

Real-life castaways

   There were many stories of real-life castaways in Defoe's time. Defoe's
   inspiration for Crusoe was probably a Scottish sailor named Alexander
   Selkirk, who was rescued in 1709 by Woodes Rogers' expedition after
   four years on the uninhabited island of Más a Tierra in the Juan
   Fernández Islands off the Chilean coast. Rogers's " Cruising Voyage"
   was published in 1712, with an account of Alexander Selkirk's ordeal.
   However, Robinson Crusoe is far from a copy of Woodes Roger's account.
   Selkirk was abandoned at his own request, while Crusoe was shipwrecked.
   The islands are different. Selkirk lived alone for the whole time,
   while Crusoe found companions. Selkirk stayed on his island for four
   years, not twenty-eight. Furthermore, much of the appeal of Defoe's
   novel is the detailed and captivating account of Crusoe's thoughts,
   occupations and activities which goes far beyond that of Rogers' basic
   descriptions of Selkirk, which account for only a few pages.

Interpretations

   Despite its simple narrative style and the absence of the supposedly
   indispensable love motive, it was well received in the literary world.
   The book is considered one of the most widely published books in
   history (behind some of the sacred texts). It has been a hit since the
   day it was published, and continues to be highly regarded to this day.

   Novelist James Joyce eloquently noted that the true symbol of the
   British conquest is Robinson Crusoe: "He is the true prototype of the
   British colonist… The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit is in Crusoe: the manly
   independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet
   efficient intelligence, the sexual apathy, the calculating
   taciturnity".

   According to J.P. Hunter, Robinson is not a hero, but an everyman. He
   begins as a wanderer, aimless on a sea he does not understand; he ends
   as a pilgrim, crossing a final mountain to enter the promised land. The
   book tells the story of how Robinson gets closer to God, not through
   listening to sermons in a church but through spending time alone
   amongst nature with only a Bible to read.

   Robinson Crusoe is filled with religious aspects. Defoe was himself a
   Puritan moralist, and normally worked in the guide tradition, writing
   books on how to be a good Puritan Christian, such as The New Family
   Instructor (1727) and Religious Courtship (1722). While Robinson Crusoe
   is far more than a guide, it shares many of the same themes and
   theological and moral points of view. The very name "Crusoe" may have
   been taken from Timothy Cruso, a classmate of Defoe's who had written
   guide books himself, including God the Guide of Youth (1695), before
   dying at an early age — just eight years before Defoe wrote Robinson
   Crusoe. Cruso would still have been remembered by contemporaries and
   the association with guide books is clear. It has even been suggested
   that God the Guide of Youth inspired Robinson Crusoe because of a
   number of passages in that work that are closely tied to the novel;
   however this is speculative.

Cultural influences

   The book proved so popular that the names of the two main protagonists
   have entered the language. The term "Robinson Crusoe" is virtually
   synonymous with the word "castaway" and is often used as a metaphor for
   being or doing something alone. Robinson Crusoe usually referred to his
   servant as "my man Friday", from which the term " Man Friday" (or "Girl
   Friday") originated, referring to a personal assistant, servant, or
   companion.

   In Jean-Jacques Rousseau's treatise on education, Emile: Or, On
   Education, the one book the main character, Emile, is allowed to read
   before the age of twelve is Robinson Crusoe. Rousseau wants Emile to
   identify himself as Crusoe so he could rely upon himself for all of his
   needs. In Rousseau's view, Emile needs to imitate Crusoe's experience,
   allowing necessity to determine what is to be learned and accomplished.
   This is one of the main themes of Rousseau's educational model.

   Nobel Prize-winning (2003) author J. M. Coetzee in 1986 published a
   novel entitled Foe, in which he explores an alternative telling of the
   Crusoe story, an allegorical story about racism, philosophy, and
   colonialism.

   Jacques Offenbach wrote an opéra comique called Robinson Crusoé which
   was first performed at the Opéra-Comique, Salle Favart on 23 November
   1867. This was based on the British pantomime version rather than the
   novel itself. The libretto was by Eugène Cormon and Hector-Jonathan
   Crémieux. The opera includes a duet by Robinson Crusoe and Friday.

   French novelist Michel Tournier wrote Friday (or in French Vendredi ou
   les Limbes du Pacifique) published in 1967. His novel explores themes
   including civilization versus nature, the psychology of solitude,and
   death and sexuality, in a retelling of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe story.
   Tournier's Robinson chooses to remain on the island, rejecting
   civilization when offered the chance to escape 28 years after being
   shipwrecked.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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