Daniel wrote on various economic issues of the day, as well as on the problems of long-term colonization and exploration, showing that he really was paying a lot of attention to everything. He even wrote a travel book, A Tour Thro' the whole Island of Great Britain, which was highly unusual for the time in that he'd actually traveled to the places he wrote about. He was really kind of a Renaissance man, I suppose, though he didn't quite live in the right time period for that. He died in Cripple gate on 24 April 1731, of a lethargy?.
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Robinson Crusoe is one of the world's most popular adventure novels. Daniel Defoe based his classic tale of shipwreck and survival on an uninhabited island is based on a true story. The real Robinson Crusoe was a Scotsman named Alexander Selkirk (or Secreting).
Born in 1676, when Selkirk was 19 years old he was cited for indecent conduct in church, but before he could be reprimanded, he ran off to sea. That was in 1695. By 1703 he was the sailing master of a galley. The following year he joined a pirate expedition to the Pacific Ocean that was led by Capt. William Dampier. Selkirk's ship had Thomas Straddling as it's captain.
After spending some time in the Pacific and numerous raids on the Spanish towns and shipping, they were preparing to return to England with their booty. Their ship had suffered considerable damage in battle and Selkirk felt they needed to repair her before setting off around the Horn. The captain disagreed. After a heated argument and in a fit of anger, Selkirk refused to go any farther and demanded he be set ashore on the Island of Juan Fernandez. which was about 400 miles off the coast of Chile. This, the captain was glad to do.
Once ashore, Selkirk realized the enormity of what he had done. He thought others in the crew would join him, but none did. He changed his mind and tried to convince the captain to take him back. The captain refused and Selkirk found he had marooned himself alone on an uninhabited island. Actually this was the smart thing to do since the ship later sank killing most of those aboard, but at the time he didn't know this.
After about two years on the island he finally saw a ship and ran down to the shore to greet it. He realized almost too late that it was a Spanish ship and the
Spaniards opened fire on him as he ran for cover. They were unable to find him and eventually left. He was much more cautious after that.
Selkirk was able to domesticate some goats and cats he found on the island and these were his only companions though out his stay of almost 4 1/2 years. He was finally found in February 1709 by William Dampier, who was then pilot on a private ring expedition headed by Captain Woods Rogers.
Rogers appointed Selkirk as ship's mate and later gave him command of captured ship. For the next two years they conducted raids on the coast of Peru and Chile. They even captured a Spanish galleon. Selkirk was very well-off when they returned to London in 1711, as his share of the booty came to £800—a sizable fortune in those days. Selkirk soon met essayist Richard Steele, who wrote up Selkirk's story and published it as "The Englishman" in 1711.[4]
Selkirk eventually returned to his home in Scotland, where he became quite a celebrity. Though he did get married, he never quite recovered from his stay on the island. Spending much of his time alone, he didn't feel comfortable living indoors and built a sort of cave or bower behind his father's house that he stayed in. He also trained two cats to perform little feats, like he did on the island. Eventually he returned to sea and he died of fever off the coast of Africa in 1721 at the age of
While some biographers say Defoe never met Selkirk, others say the two met at the house of Mrs. Demaris Daniel in Bristol, where Selkirk told Defoe firsthand of his adventures and even gave Defoe his personal papers. Either way, there's little doubt Crusoe is largely inspired by Selkirk. He may have also been in Robert Louis Stephenson's mind when he wrote of the marooned pirate Ben Gunn in Treasure Island.
In the novel, Defoe extended Selkirk's 4 1/2 years on the island to Robinson Crusoe's 28 years. He also moved the island from off the coast of Chile far out in the Pacific Ocean to just off the coast of Venezuela. In relation to our main interest—which is pirates and piracy—before Crusoe is shipwrecked on the island he is captured by Moorish pirates from Sallee on the coast of Africa, but soon escapes. And while his rescuers are not exactly pirates, they are in the midst of a mutiny that Crusoe helps put down and brings them back to the straight and narrow.
Even though Robinson Crusoe is a fictional character, like Sherlock Holmes he has crossed over from fiction to fact in the minds of some people. There are even people on the Island of Tobago who claim to be descended from Robinson Crusoe.
The sours of the “Robinson Crusoe’s Adventures”
Need is the Mother of inventions as an expression taking from woods Rodgers the author of “The sail around the world” written 1712. Woods Rodgers was the captain who found Alexander Selkirk on the island “Khan Fernandez”.[5]
1. М. П. Алексеев: Статьи в книге «Даниель Дефо и его роман “Робинзон Крузо “ стр.5-8.»
Москва« Детскаялитература» 1988. стр. 3-248.
Alexander Selkirk a Scottish scat of sailor who lived in Khan Fernandez island 4 years and 4 month (1705-1709)
Defoe’s hero is a typical Englishman. He has his own dignities and (short-comings) = lack= (of) shortages of his characters these are analyzed by Defoe’s as the character of the main hero. The hero wants his country to be developed and to be the owner of new colonies. That is why Robinson Crusoe sells the boy in Brazil though he could escape captivity together with the boy he does it without any hesitation indifferently. He turns Friday into his servant and for slave though he makes pacific speeches against Spanish colonizers and gustier. These are common typical features almost every contemporary of the writer.
Selkirk and his like stayed in union habited islands not too long. But Robinson Crusoe lived in his island twenty eight years, two months and nineteen days. The author knew this is rather long solitude loneliness though.
The man had a strong will and energy as even comparatively less period, left to destiny itself last their human look cast of mind and then even last their speech. But lengthening the term period. Defoe go an opportunity to awake the readers’ sympathy to his hero.
He also got a necessary opportunity for detailed description about moral and physical development of single man, about possible means of development of his abilities and spiritual force. This story turned into a story about inner ripening of a man, full of delicate fine physiological observations. Specialists think that Daniel Defoe felt strong influence of the philosophy of the end of the XVIII and the beginning of the XIX centuries. Especially Defoe’s outlook had much in common with the ideas of one of the founders of English Enlightment John Lock the author of “An Experience (about) on Human Mind”.[6]
Daniel Defoe borrowed an idea from John Lock about it a man in solitude could appropriate the fight to own the land and the products to all members of the society.
The influence of John Lock’s ideas concerning education can be seen in Robinson’s teaching Friday the truths of Christian religion.
Defoe’s book is penetrated with the ideas of Enlightenment these are: glorification of reasons, optimism, and labor. “Robinson Crusoe” is a book of complex structure and of big ideological content. These things made the book popular in the Epoch of Enlightenment. These ideas put the book on the top of the belles letters of those days, these ideas made it the prototype of future realistic novel in European literature.
“Robinson Crusoe” made great impression on prominent writers and poets one of whom was Goethe, not only the men of letters of Europe but in other countries too. Great books of world literature are kept in the minds in the memories of many generations of readers not only for their significance but also what effects they had for the development of the future literature. This novel belongs to the ranks of works which are read by millions of people all the world over. The book staid alive thanks to the fact that it thought us to live and build life. Future readers should also know this educative essence of the book and they should never forget the significance of this nice creation, we must not forget the lessons of the hero.
“Robinson Crusoe’s way to Uzbekistan via Russia
A well known scholar Alekseev M.P. tells us that the first Russian translator of Defoe’s novel was Trusov. His translation ( made, by the way, from French) was published in two parts in 1762-1764 and has in Russian the following little. Жизньиприключения. РобинзонКрузоприродногоангличанинаД. Фое. No doubt that in XVIII century “Robinson Crusoe” was read much both in Russian translation and besides in different western European abridged editions and alterations. (переделки) This period ma be considered the time when youth lived to read the book. In N. I. Novelov’s journal magazine “Детскаячтениедлясердцаиразума”(1785-1789) (“children’s reading for heart and reason”) we find an extraction from “Robinson Crusoe an ditched alteration 1779 made I. G. Khaire. And in “Reminiscences” of S. H. Glinka there is a story about his tutor, Frenchman Lablane, who had been a passionate admirer of “Robinson” and who implanted love in for this famous book not only but all his ages when twenty years later the same Glinka began to publish his magazine “New children’s readers” (1819-1824) he opened the magazine with “Robinson Crusoe” in his own shortening curtailment and alteration for young readers. And the shortenings curtailments from the same work extracts in the magazines for grown ups.
There appeared various alterations of the book. Different books appeared during not only XVIII but XIX century as well. Among shade who made such alterations shortenings curtailments we may name us outstanding Russian writers L. N. Tolstoy. Among many publish and bad translations we may mansion. P. A. Korsakov and P. Konchalovsky’s translation.
M. A. Shishmoreva and Z. N. Shuravshaya as experienced translators carried out new interpretations of the novel in XIX-XX centuries. York an ancient town of northern England gave the name to one of the widest fastest dukedom the Kingdom Yorkshire was also one of the most important trade ports centuries. Crusoe is near to a Germanic Lord Kraus “Корец”and a verb “крейцер”- крестить.
Robinson Crusoe and his character
An unnamed editor explains his reasons for offering us the narrative we are about to read. He does not mention the name or story of Robinson Crusoe explicitly but, rather, describes the narrative as a “private man’s adventures in the world” and focuses on its realism when he calls it a “just history of fact.” He claims it is modest and serious, and that it has an instructive value, teaching us to honor “the wisdom of Providence.” Thus, the editor asserts he is doing a great service to the world in publishing Crusoe’s tale.
A man named Robinson Crusoe records his own life story, beginning with his birth in 1632 in the English city of York. Crusoe’s father was a German, originally named Kreutznaer. Crusoe is the youngest of three brothers, the eldest being a soldier and the second one having vanished mysteriously. As the youngest son in the family, Crusoe is expected to inherit little, and, as a result, his father encourages him to take up the law. But Crusoe’s inclination is to go to sea. His family strongly opposes this idea, and his father gives him a stern lecture on the value of accepting a middle station in life. Crusoe resolves to follow his father’s advice. But when one of his friends embarks for London, Crusoe succumbs to temptation and boards the ship on September 1, 1651. A storm develops. Near Yarmouth the weather is so bad that Crusoe fears for his life and prays to God for deliverance. The ship nearly founders, but all are saved. Crusoe sees this ordeal as a sign of fate that he should give up sea travel, and his friend’s father warns him against setting foot on a ship again, echoing his own father’s warning.
ROBINSON CRUSOE IS AN ENGLISHMAN from the town of York in the seventeenth century, the youngest son of a merchant of German origin. Encouraged by his father to study law, Crusoe expresses his wish to go to sea instead. His family is against Crusoe going out to sea, and his father explains that it is better to seek a modest, secure life for oneself. Initially, Robinson is committed to obeying his father, but he eventually succumbs to temptation and embarks on a ship bound for London with a friend. When a storm causes the near deaths of Crusoe and his friend, the friend is dissuaded from sea travel, but Crusoe still goes on to set himself up as merchant on a ship leaving London. This trip is financially successful, and Crusoe plans another, leaving his early profits in the care of a friendly widow. The second voyage does not prove as fortunate: the ship is seized by Moorish pirates, and Crusoe is enslaved to a potentate in the North African town of Sallee. While on a fishing expedition, he and a slave boy break free and sail down the African coast. A kindly Portuguese captain picks them up, buys the slave boy from Crusoe, and takes Crusoe to Brazil. In Brazil, Crusoe establishes himself as a plantation owner and soon becomes successful. Eager for slave labor and its economic advantages, he embarks on a slave-gathering expedition to West Africa but ends up shipwrecked off of the coast of Trinidad.
Crusoe soon learns he is the sole survivor of the expedition and seeks shelter and food for himself. He returns to the wreck’s remains twelve times to salvage guns, powder, food, and other items. Onshore, he finds goats he can graze for meat and builds himself a shelter. He erects a cross that he inscribes with the date of his arrival, September 1, 1659, and makes a notch every day in order never to lose track of time. He also keeps a journal of his household activities, noting his attempts to make candles, his lucky discovery of sprouting grain, and his construction of a cellar, among other events. In June 1660, he falls ill and hallucinates that an angel visits, warning him to repent. Drinking tobacco-steeped rum, Crusoe experiences a religious illumination and realizes that God has delivered him from his earlier sins. After recovering, Crusoe makes a survey of the area and discovers he is on an island. He finds a pleasant valley abounding in grapes, where he builds a shady retreat. Crusoe begins to feel more optimistic about being on the island, describing himself as its “king.” He trains a pet parrot, takes a goat as a pet, and develops skills in basket weaving, bread making, and pottery. He cuts down an enormous cedar tree and builds a huge canoe from its trunk, but he discovers that he cannot move it to the sea. After building a smaller boat, he rows around the island but nearly perishes when swept away by a powerful current. Reaching shore, he hears his parrot calling his name and is thankful for being saved once again. He spends several years in peace.
One day Crusoe is shocked to discover a man’s footprint on the beach. He first assumes the footprint is the devil’s, then decides it must belong to one of the cannibals said to live in the region. Terrified, he arms himself and remains on the lookout for cannibals. He also builds an underground cellar in which to herd his goats at night and devises a way to cook underground. One evening he hears gunshots, and the next day he is able to see a ship wrecked on his coast. It is empty when he arrives on the scene to investigate. Crusoe once again thanks Providence for having been saved. Soon afterward, Crusoe discovers that the shore has been strewn with human carnage, apparently the remains of a cannibal feast. He is alarmed and continues to be vigilant. Later Crusoe catches sight of thirty cannibals heading for shore with their victims. One of the victims is killed. Another one, waiting to be slaughtered, suddenly breaks free and runs toward Crusoe’s dwelling. Crusoe protects him, killing one of the pursuers and injuring the other, whom the victim finally kills. Well-armed, Crusoe defeats most of the cannibals onshore. The victim vows total submission to Crusoe in gratitude for his liberation. Crusoe names him Friday, to commemorate the day on which his life was saved, and takes him as his servant.