Robinson Crusoe summary

The cover of Classic Comics No. 10, April 1943
Picture source

I had trouble trying to discuss Robinson Crusoe, mainly because there are so many ways you can approach the work. One point I would hope to convey is that this is not just a kid’s book or a clichéd movie theme…the original work is worth exploring at any age.

Robinson Crusoe discussion

Some online resources on Defoe and the work

Where I started reading Robinson Crusoe

I’ll include one more quote, one on Providence that Defoe develops over the work regarding the nudge that intuition can give us in ways to act for our benefit. A decidedly Puritan outlook on life, it is a message that runs through the book, even before Defoe calls attention to it:

I resolved it all at last into thankfulness to that Providence which had delivered me from so many unseen dangers, and had kept me from those mischiefs which I could have no way been the agent in delivering myself from, because I had not the least notion of any such thing depending, or the least supposition of its being possible. This renewed a contemplation which often had come into my thoughts in former times, when first I began to see the merciful dispositions of Heaven, in the dangers we run through in this life; how wonderfully we are delivered when we know nothing of it; how, when we are in a quandary as we call it, a doubt or hesitation whether to go this way or that way, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when we intended to go that way: nay, when sense, our own inclination, and perhaps business has called us to go the other way, yet a strange impression upon the mind, from we know not what springs, and by we know not what power, shall overrule us to go this way; and it shall afterwards appear that had we gone that way, which we should have gone, and even to our imagination ought to have gone, we should have been ruined and lost. Upon these and many like reflections I afterwards made it a certain rule with me, that whenever I found those secret hints or pressings of mind to doing or not doing anything that presented, or going this way or that way, I never failed to obey the secret dictate; though I knew no other reason for it than such a pressure or such a hint hung upon my mind. I could give many examples of the success of this conduct in the course of my life, but more especially in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappy island; besides many occasions which it is very likely I might have taken notice of, if I had seen with the same eyes then that I see with now. But it is never too late to be wise; and I cannot but advise all considering men, whose lives are attended with such extraordinary incidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, not to slight such secret intimations of Providence, let them come from what invisible intelligence they will. That I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannot account for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits, and a secret communication between those embodied and those unembodied, and such a proof as can never be withstood; of which I shall have occasion to give some remarkable instances in the remainder of my solitary residence in this dismal place.

Robinson Crusoe discussion

Map of Robinson Crusoe's Island
Illustration by Clark and Pine, from the 1719 first English edition
Picture source

You are not to take it, if you please, as the saying of an ignorant man, when I express my opinion that such a book as Robinson Crusoe never was written, and never will be written again. I have tried that book for years—generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco—and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad—Robinson Crusoe. When I want advice—Robinson Crusoe. In past times when my wife plagued me; in present times when I have had a drop too much—Robinson Crusoe. I have worn out six stout Robinson Crusoe s with hard work in my service. On my lady's last birthday she gave me a seventh. I took a drop too much on the strength of it; and Robinson Crusoe put me right again. Price four shillings and sixpence, bound in blue, with a picture into the bargain.

- From The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins


Robinson Crusoe should be the only instance of a universally popular book that could make no one laugh and could make no one cry.

- Charles Dickens

It turns out there was quite a bit different from what I expected of Robinson Crusoe as well as many things I anticipated. A few of the major differences:

- Crusoe has two major shipwrecks before the one that strands him, becoming a slave after the second mishap. I have mixed feelings about the beginning of the novel, but in general I think it sets things up fairly well.

- The ending, where he treks over land to avoid sea-travel, was startling and felt badly out of place. I would say I hated the ending, but that might understate my feelings about it.

- Expecting to see him marooned without any assistance, Crusoe salvages the better part of his ship before it sinks. While many items are rudimentary and he knows how to use few of them, without the ship’s stores he would have perished quickly.

- I expected Friday to enter the picture earlier. Crusoe was on the island almost eighteen years before he saw another footprint besides his own, and it was (I believe) another seven before he saw (and rescued) Friday. As the full title mentions, he was stranded on the island a total of twenty-eight years.

- The evolution of the religious element, especially since it is nonexistent for quite a while in the novel. The discovery Crusoe makes involves more than just understanding himself. Developing his understanding of his relationship with God plays a major role in the story.

- I never knew viz., or videlicet, could be used so often (which is why I had to work it into the resources post).

Dickens’ comment about the novel may be true but the overwhelming irony between Crusoe’s nature, self-described as rambling and restless, and his isolated situation on the island (along with Defoe’s dry wit) can at least bring an occasional smile. Defoe’s language and focus reflect a very different approach to conveying Crusoe’s isolation from the rest of the world with what we would probably see today. Rich with details in certain areas, the reader can picture Crusoe’s life as he educates himself on many different aspects of survival and being. Yet other areas and details of his life and the island are missing. If I had to describe the island, I could give great detail on a few things but in some areas I would fall back on a ‘typical’ Caribbean island motif to fill in many gaps. Likewise Crusoe’s description of isolation can be over-detailed while in other instances it can be laconic. Hiding behind the economically described realization that he is the only survivor of the shipwreck resides a desolation that is conveyed with a brief inventory:

I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and my whole being, as I may say, wrapped up in a contemplation of my deliverance; making a thousand gestures and motions, which I cannot describe; reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself; for, as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows.

The language, like much of the story, is of a utilitarian nature. The focus while on the island revolves around survival and to do this Crusoe must work. He does not realize that the island is uninhabited or that the wildlife is not much of a threat. As has been noted many times, Crusoe is an Everyman, an ordinary person placed in extraordinary circumstances. His self-education and achievements are the results of resiliency and hard work, representing what man can achieve by simply willing things into being. It's a very Puritan outlook, to be sure, richly conveyed through Defoe’s morality tale. Crusoe, in a sense, follows his role as the prodigal son, but achieves (and surpasses) what his father had advised. Unfortunately neither parent survived long enough to see the return of their ‘lost son’.

There are many approaches available for writing about Robinson Crusoe since it covers many different aspects of human life. The book seems to be a type of Rorschach test where readers project their biases or leanings onto Defoe and/or Crusoe. Which explains how the introduction in my book can portray religion as simply another utilitarian tool, helpful only when Crusoe figures out how to make it useful. If that’s what you want to see, instead of his spiritual travail being just as important as his existential test, that’s all you are going to see.

Also of interest to me is how the tale can survive so many adaptations and still be entertaining. Glancing through a few versions in the children’s section of the library, it is easy to note that religion is effectively excised. The ‘marooned on an island’ story can be entertaining by itself (and maybe even more so to kids who can view Crusoe’s maturation and self-dependency as something they want to achieve). Still, I’m glad I have discovered the book in its original form for myself, even if it was later in life. The book survives because many of the messages and themes are timeless.

If interested in the book, I recommend visiting some of the sites on my online resources post as they go into much more detail on the work, in particular the work ethic and religious aspect of it.

Robinson Crusoe online resources

Robinson Crusoe first edition (1719)
Picture source

A story can be so firmly cemented as a cultural touchstone that you think you know it without having ever read it. Part of my interest in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe comes from wanting to see what is consistent and what is different from my expectations. I was planning on reading some early English novels next year, but I’m moving this one ahead of the pack just for the fun of it.

Daniel Defoe

Information on Defoe at Wikipedia

Defoe’s page at luminarium.org, which includes links to essays, resources and books about the author

The biography Daniel Defoe by William Minto (1900) at Google Books

The chapter “Defoe—The Newspaper and the Novel” from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, available at bartleby.com

The Digital Defoe, which includes (among other links) On Teaching Another Defoe (viz. helping students learn“the most about Defoe as an author and about the age in which he lived”)


Robinson Crusoe

The title page from the 1719 first edition (pictured above):
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Meriner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Cost of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, where-in all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates.
Written by Himself

The Wikipedia entry

Texts:

At Project Gutenberg
Online .pdf version at Planet PDF (which can be downloaded)
An online version of the first edition at Pierre Marteau’s site
Free audio version of the book at LibriVox.com

Ian Johnston’s lecture on Robinson Crusoe

An informative site which includes biography, background and links on Defoe and Robinson Crusoe. It appears to be part of an Eighteenth Century English Novel Course at Brooklyn College by Lilia Milani. Also of interest is detail on some of the possible sources and inspirations for the novel.

Picturing the First Castaway: The Illustration of Robinson Crusoe has many illustrations from various versions of the book. The site covers from the first English edition through the early 20th century.