I Was Born a Ramblin Man: Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe (1719)

Robinson Crusoe is a cautionary tale of a man's incessant wanderlust that leads him into increasing difficulties culminating in an enforced solitary stay on an uncharted island that lasts almost 28 years.

The story is generally well known, but a couple of points that interested me were, first, he had several shipwreck adventures before his main one that covered the twenty-eight years, secondly, the famous companion Friday that everyone remembers only appears in the last couple of years of Crusoe's otherwise solitary existence on the Island.

Certainly the book is interesting, however when you start reading it and not many pages in come to the thrilling part where he weathers the storm on the trip between his home at Hull and London, England, you think he would never get aboard a ship again, however a few drinks on dry land convinces him his ordeal (where he pled with God to save him) was not all that bad and he soon ships out again. His next expedition finds him captured by pirates and he is enslaved by the Moors and ultimately escapes by sea after a number of years. He is picked up by a Portuguese ship which carries him to Brazil where he builds a plantation and prospers for several years, but his neighbors induce him to take a ship to Africa and bring back some slaves, which he attempts, but runs into a hurricane and this is the incident where the ship wrecks and all perish save our hero.

The main body of the book covers how he builds a life for himself on the deserted Island, somewhere in the Caribbean, removing nearly everything good from the wreck, building his home and fortress, excavating a cave, keeping a calendar, raising goats, and growing closer to God through his solitude and bible reading. The reader cannot help but admire Robinson Crusoe’s admirable self-sufficiency.

The book has a good variety of incidents to keep you turning pages, for example, Crusoe believes he is alone on the Island until the day he finds a naked footprint. The description of how he hurries back to his fortress and barricades himself in for several days is quite thrilling. He later learns the footprint belongs to cannibals who occasionally use his island for their grisly feasts. On one of these occasions he interrupts their feasting, kills several and rescues their prisoner who turns out to be the faithful man he names Friday. The book follows this pattern to the end, where it is revealed that all’s well that ends well, he is rescued from his prison, he learns his Brazilian plantation has made him rich, and he marries, has children, and becomes a widower.

Robinson Crusoe is credited as the first novel in the English language. A fictional story with some basis on the story of Alexander Selkirk, a sailor marooned on a similar island, the novel goes much further than the bald accounts of Selkirk's enforced stay.

Crusoe's tale reveals the inner thoughts and meditations of the character with much moral teaching. It could be seen as an allegory of a man coming to the knowledge of God by working through his trials and ordeals. However, this is not necessary as the book is enjoyable just as its own story of how he dealt with the various situations that arose during his many years on the island.

The language of the book is a bit archaic which I found refreshing as the writing is first class. Others may wish for an updated version, but the language is not hard to understand so I think it is a minor con.

The book has been published in many editions, continuously since 1719. Currently, Modern Library and Penguin have paperback versions that run a bit over 300 pages. Either of these are good for the casual reader, while one who is a real fan of the book will want to look for a hard back, which is also currently in print.

Read a good book today!