| |
Literature Ebooks Robinson Crusoe
|
Robinson Crusoe |
Daniel Defoe’s most famous novel was published in 1719 with the full title, The Life and strange and surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. It is based, in fact, upon the experiences of Alexander Selkirk who had run away to sea in 1704 and requested to be left on an uninhabited island to be rescued five years later.
Defoe himself was in his late fifties when he wrote the book, which is often considered to be the first English novel. Crusoe ends up on a desert island in the manner of Selkirk. With only a few supplies from the ship he builds a house, a boat and a new life. His island is not wholly uninhabited, though, and there is the exciting but ominous presence of cannibals who Crusoe occasionally encounters and saves a native from. The latter becomes his servant, Man Friday. The crew of a mutinying ship finally rescue our hero, but it is his adventure on the island that interests us.
The story has remained popular ever since its publication and it spawned two sequels: later in 1719 with The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and a third part, The Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, in 1720 which consisted of moral essays. The first novel, though, is particularly notable for its detailed verisimilitude allowing us to believe in the situation - something assisted by the uncomplicated language used by the author.
SAMPLE EXCERPT (From Opening Chapter)
I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family,
though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who
settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving
off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my
mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that
country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual
corruption of words in England, we are now called—nay we call ourselves
and write our name—Crusoe; and so my companions always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an
English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous
Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the
Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more than
my father or mother knew what became of me.
Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head
began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was
very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as houseeducation
and a country free school generally go, and designed me for the
law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my
inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of
my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and
other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of
nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me. |
Tell a Friend
Write Review
|
| DETAILS |
| Format: | PDF
| Allows Print: | YES |
| FileSize: | 750Kb | | |
| Pages: | 317 | | |
|
|
|
|
| |
