The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited 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 Pyrates, also known as Robinson Crusoe
Author: Daniel Defoe
First Published in 1719 by William Taylor
Edition Read: Barnes & Noble Classics Hardcover Edition Published in 2004
266 Pages including the Introduction,Notes, etc.
English Language
ISBN-13: 978-59308-169-0ISBN-10: 1-59308-169-3
I have had this book on my bookshelf for probably a decade. I bought it at B&N years ago. I decided to finally read it. I skipped the scholarly notes, etc. at the beginning at first, in order to read it with a clear lens not colored yet by anyone’s analysis or opinion, just to read it like reading an enjoyable novel. I heard about Crusoe for years- about how he’s a man alone on an island and there are now a bunch of movies based on this concept. I wanted to form my own impressions when reading this book for the first time. I just remembered that in Spanish class in 2015, I practiced reading a passage from a Spanish translation of this book.
Anyway, this book takes place from the 1650s to the 1680s. When it first begins, Crusoe’s (RC) parents are warning him not to go into the life of seafaring because it will be a disaster, that there are better things to do in life, and he has a good station in life as it is. RC is like the prodigal son and just has to get away and go exploring and sailing. His dad just wants him to be content. Anyway, RC does have a few mishaps with sailing before the ill-fated one that leaves him stranded. One time, he and the crew almost die in a storm. Another time, he is on a ship, it gets attacked, and he is taken as a slave by Moors. I think he has one really good profitable voyage that encourages him to keep on with his chosen life. The last voyage he takes, he is going with other sailors to trade some things and buy slaves-which I thought was tragic since he was a slave, absolutely hated it, and had difficulty escaping. On this voyage, he is shipwrecked and writes about his life on the island.
I felt like I really had to slow down when reading this book in order to really focus on what the narration was saying. While on the island, RC goes through a spiritual renewal/ possibly born again conversion experience. He sees himself as not at all devout for the most part of his life. Now that he’s shipwrecked, he really starts to seek God, pray, and read the Bible. All of the warnings he got from his father and the things that happened in his life, he sees the guiding hand of Providence in them. RC is a Protestant but I couldn’t decipher whether he was an Anglican or a dissenter. RC writes about his activities on the island: his constructions and how he finds food, what he was able to get out of the shipwreck, and realizing there are cannibals who journey to places on the island at certain times a year. He finally rescues a victim and names him Friday and his new friend helps him out a lot. RC rescues some more people, and eventually he is able to leave with another ship; there other adventures and many details peppered throughout. It was an interesting narrative to read once I got used to the flow of the language.
Dates Read: February 23 to March 16 2019
A Love So Wordy 