Robinson Crusoe
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- Adventure story
- Enlightenment
What It’s About
Desert Island Risks
Hearing the name “Robinson Crusoe” you probably think of a bearded man dressed in animal skins, roaming a lonesome island with his only companion Friday, a noble native who speaks like an innocent child. The myth of Robinson is a powerful one: Holiday clubs and whole islands are named after him, and there's probably not a single remote getaway location in the world that doesn't feature at least one Robinson bar, restaurant or tourist site. Ironically, the novel isn't about sweet idleness and restful recreation, at all, but about hard work and spiritual awakening. In his journalistic and deliberately edifying novel Daniel Dafoe tells the story of an industrious Englishman who beats all odds and builds a livelihood for himself from next to nothing – eventually recreating the civilization he left behind – possibly a rather too sobering thought for the cocktail sipping holiday-maker reclining beneath a coconut palm.
Take-Aways
About the Author
Daniel Defoe was born in London in 1660. His father James Foe – Daniel later added the “De” to his name to make it sound more distinguished – was a prosperous tallow chandler, who didn’t belong to the Church of England. Because of this Daniel, himself an ardent follower of Protestantism, couldn’t go to university. He gave up on his initial plan to become a Presbyterian minister and went into business as a general merchant. Before long he went bankrupt and accrued considerable debts that would accompany him for the rest of his life. In 1684, he married Mary Tuffley, the daughter of a rich merchant. She brought in a huge dowry and bore him eight children, six of whom survived. Defoe published several pamphlets calling for religious tolerance and social reforms. In 1702, he wrote a treatise attacking the Church of England, for which he was prosecuted and pilloried. According to legend, however, the common folk cheered and drank to his health, instead of hurling the customary abuses at him. In exchange for being released from prison, Defoe agreed to enlist as an intelligence agent for the English government. In the run-up to the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707, resulting in the single state of Great Britain, he traveled to Scotland to report on anti-Unionist activities and guarantee consent to the Union Act – a dangerous affair in the turbulent political atmosphere. Simultaneously, he worked as a journalist and, until 1713, published the newspaper The Review. At the ripe age of almost 60, he began writing novels. The first, Robinson Crusoe (1719) is his most famous, followed, among others, by Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720), Captain Singleton (1720), The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (1722) and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722). Daniel Defoe died in London on April 26, 1731.
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