Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe was a prolific writer (over 370 known publications) who could–and would–turn his hand to almost any topic; he has been called one of the greatest journalists and the father of journalism. To many of his contemporaries, he was a man who sold his pen to the political party in office and so lacking integrity. He was not taken seriously by literary men, though his skill at writing was acknowledged. Alexander Pope said of him, "The first part of Robinson Crusoe is very good–De Foe wrote a vast many things; and none bad, though none excellent, except this" (1742).

He was an outsider, being a Dissenter or Puritan, the son of a butcher, and a suspected government spy (this suspicion was confirmed in the nineteenth century). Jonathan Swift regarded him with contempt, "One of these Authors (the Fellow that was pilloryed, I have forgot his Name) is indeed so grave, sententious, dogmatical a Rogue, that there is no enduring him." At least part of Swift's attitude is snobbery; Defoe was not a gentleman born or raised though he aspired to be one and changed his name from Foe to Defoe and bought a coach with his coat of arms on its door.

For nearly seventy-five years, Defoe's reputation as a writer was in decline. But from 1780 to1830, a succession of biographies and editions of his works was published, and his literary star began to rise. As perceptive a critic as Coleridge appreciated his artistry. But Sir Walter Scott, though appreciative, raised the objection that Defoe lacked conscious artistry, "Defoe seems to have written too rapidly to pay the least attention to his circumstances; the incidents are huddled together like paving-stones discharged from a cart, and as little connexion between the one and the other." This objection continues to be raised.

Robinson Crusoe
robinson crusoe

With six printings in four months, Robinson Crusoe was a popular and financial success in 1719. To capitalize on its success, he wrote, in the same year, The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, which is a disappointment for most readers. The next year, he recycled some essays as Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe. Through the remainder of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, Robinson Crusoe was printed with both the first and second parts. The modern practice of publishing only the first part of Robinson Crusoe began around 1860.

Because of Robinson Crusoe's success, it was immediately pirated, abridged, imitated, translated and adapted for the stage as pantomime and as drama. Because of its universal appeal, the novel continued to be published, adapted, and tranformed for over two centuries. By 1895, 196 editions of Robinson Crusoe had been published, 114 revisions, 277 imitations, and 110 translations–translations in Dutch, Hebrew, Armenian, Bengali, Persian, and even Eskimo, to name a few. It has been packaged as a picture book with little or no text; this degradation was consistent with a tendency to view it as a children's book, a fate it shared with Gulliver's Travels.. It continues to inspire novels like Swiss Family Robinson and Muriel Spark's Robinson; Crusoe has been reincarnated as a boy, as a girl, as a dog, and as a sexual Crusoe. Crusoe has appeared in succession of movies, including one which sent him to Mars. And Engelbert Humperdinck starred in a 1969 pantomime in two acts called Robinson Crusoe.

Robinson Crusoe is a novel first published in 1719 and sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. The book is a fictional autobiography of the title character, an English castaway who spends 28 years on a remote island, encountering savages, captives, and mutineers before being rescued. This device, presenting an account of supposedly factual events, is known as a "false document", and gives a realistic frame to the story.

The full title of the novel is The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited 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 Pirates. Written by Himself.

Crusoe leaves England on a sea voyage in September 1651 against the wishes of his parents. The ship is taken over by Salè pirates and Crusoe becomes the slave of a Moor. He manages to escape with a boat and is befriended by the Captain of a Portuguese ship off the western coast of Africa. The ship is en route to Brazil. There with the help of the Captain, Crusoe becomes owner of a plantation.

He joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa, but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an island near the mouth of the Orinoco river on September 30, 1659. His companions all die; he manages to fetch arms, tools and other supplies from the ship before it breaks apart and sinks. He proceeds to build a fenced-in habitation and cave, keeps a calendar by making marks in a piece of wood. He hunts, grows corn, learns to make pottery, raises goats, etc. He reads the Bible and slowly becomes religious, thanking God for his fate in which nothing is missing but society.

He discovers native cannibals occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners. At first he plans to kill the savages for their abomination, but then he realizes that he has no right to do so as the cannibals have not attacked him and do not knowingly commit a crime. He dreams of capturing one or two servants by freeing some prisoners, and indeed, when a prisoner manages to escape, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion "Friday" after the day of the week he appeared, and teaches him English and converts him to Christianity. (In those days, British - and Dutch - whites often called coloured servants and slaves "Thursday", "Friday", "January" etc.)

After another party of natives arrive to partake in a grisly feast, Crusoe and Friday manage to kill most of the natives and save two of the prisoners. One is Friday's father and the other is a Spaniard, who informs Crusoe that there are other Spaniards shipwrecked on the mainland. A plan is devised where the Spaniard would return with Friday's father to the mainland and bring back the others, build a ship, and sail to a Spanish port.

Before the Spaniards return, an English ship appears; mutineers have taken control of the ship and intend to maroon their former captain on the island. The captain and Crusoe manage to retake the ship. They leave for England, leaving behind three of the mutineers to fend for themselves and inform the Spaniards what happened. Crusoe leaves the island on December 19, 1686. He travels to Portugal to find his old friend, the Captain, who informs him that his Brazilian plantation was well cared for and he has become wealthy. From Portugal, he travels overland to England, to avoid mishaps at sea, via Spain and France; during winter in the Pyrenees, he and his companions have to fend off an attack by vicious wolves. Back in England, he decides to sell his plantation, as returning to Brazil would entail converting to Catholicism. Later in life, after marrying, having three children and becoming widowed, he returns to his island for a last time. The book ends with a hint about a sequel that would detail his return to the island, which had been discovered.

Robinsonade is a literary genre that takes its name from the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. The success of this novel spawned enough imitations that its name was used to define a genre, which is sometimes described simply as a "desert island story".

The word "robinsonade" was coined by the German writer Johann Gottfried Schnabel in the Preface of his work Die Insel Felsenburg (1731).

In the archetypical robinsonade, the protagonist is suddenly isolated from the comforts of civilization, usually shipwrecked or marooned on a secluded and uninhabited island. He must improvise the means of his survival from the limited resources at hand. Unlike Thomas More's Utopia and romantic works which depicted nature as idyllic, Crusoe made it unforgiving and sparse. The protagonist survives by his wits and the qualities of his cultural upbringing, which also enable him to prevail in conflicts with fellow castaways or over local peoples he may encounter.

Robinson Crusoe was influential in creating a colonialization mythology - As novelist James Joyce eloquently noted the true symbol of the British conquest is Robinson Crusoe: "He is the true prototype of the British colonist… ". Later works expanded on and explored this mythology.

Robinsonades were especially popular in Germany in the 19th century.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a 1964 science fiction film retelling of the classic novel by Daniel Defoe. It was directed by Byron Haskin, produced by Aubrey Schenck and starred Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin and Adam West.

Many of the Mars scenes were filmed in Death Valley, California, at Zabriskie Point.

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