It's really amazing how rereading a book after twenty years can give
you such a different perspective on the story. Having just reread
Swiss Family Robinson (see Orrin's
review) and being surprised by the relative heavy-handedness of the
Christian rhetoric, I figured I may as well revisit Robinson Crusoe.
Now I recall this story from childhood as a thrilling adventure of man
conquering nature and surviving in the wild, but little more than that.
Imagine my surprise when this too turned out to be essentially a Christian
allegory. In looking for links to go with this review I found an
excellent essay, by Philip
Zaleski in First Things, which treats many of the issues I would have
raised and does so far better than I could have; I strongly recommend it.
I agree with much of what Zaleski says, with one caveat. I think
that there are legitimate reasons to have bowdlerized versions of books
like this and Swiss Family Robinson. Most of us are first
exposed to these classics when we are kids and non-Christian parents could
have understandable concerns about their children coping with the Christian
themes which really dominate the unexpurgated versions of these books.
Personally, I found it beautiful and compelling when Crusoe has his epiphany:
This was the first time that I could say, in the
true Sense of the Words, that I pray'd in all my Life;
for now I pray'd with a Sense of my Condition, and
with a true Scripture View of Hope founded on
the Encouragement of the Word of God; and from this
Time, I may Say, I began to have Hope that
God would hear me.
This image of a man stranded and alone facing the wilderness, but making
peace with himself and with God, is one of the most sublime in all of Western
Literature. But it is part and parcel of a very Protestant text that
some might find off-putting. It is certainly better to have kids
at least read a diluted version of the text, than never read it because
of these parental worries.
However, it is inappropriate to use the bastardized versions when these
books are being taught in High School and College. There, when readers
are sufficiently mature to understand concepts even if they disagree with
them, it does a disservice to the author, the text, the student and most
importantly to the importance of ideas themselves, to have them avoid the
central themes which the novel is intended to express.
This, one of the earliest English novels, remains one of the best; it's
popularity easy to understand. I encourage you to return to it, particularly
if you haven't read it in several decades. It is a much richer and
more interesting book than the one you may recall reading--lo, those many
moons ago.
(Reviewed:02-May-00)
Grade: (A)
Websites:
Book-related and General Links:
-Daniel
Defoe (kirjasto)
-ENCYCLOPAEDIA
BRITANNICA: Your search: "daniel defoe"
-Daniel
Defoe (Great Literature On-line)
-The
San Antonio College LitWeb Daniel Defoe Page
-TIMELINE:
Daniel Defoe - chronological notes
-Daniel
Defoe (Spartacus.schoolnet)
-Robinson
Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Islomania)
-ESSAY:
Daniel Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman (North Park University)
-Robinson
Crusoe Islands (Juan Fernandez Islands, West of Santiago, Chile)
-ARTICLE:
Even Robinson Crusoe has his day (Joanne Nesbit)
-LECTURE
OUTLINE: EN3023 The Development of the Novel to 1840 Lecture Outline:
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (Dr MacLachlan's Home Page)
-ESSAY:
Alexander Selkirk: The Real Robinson Crusoe (James S. Bruce and Mayme
S. Bruce
Published in The Explorers Journal, Spring 1993)
-ESSAY:
Notes on Marx's Capital and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (Laura Mandell)
-ESSAY:
No. 1021: ROBINSON CRUSOE (John H. Lienhard, Engines of Our Ingenuity)
-ESSAY:
I wish I'd written Robinson Crusoe (Simon Armitage, Books Unlimited)
-ESSAY:
Daniel Defoe: Crusoe's creator a controversial pamphleteer (STEVE KING
- A Literary Almanac - CBC Radio)
-ESSAY:
Daniel Dafoe: A Paradoxical Genius (PHILIP ZALESKI, First Things)
-SUMMARY:
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (c. 1659-1731)
-ETEXTS:
The Daniel Defoe Page
-ETEXT
& NOTES: Robinson Crusoe (The Grid)
-LINKS:
(UK Unlimited)
-ONLINE
STUDY GUIDE: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (SparkNote by Ben
Florman)
-REVIEW:
The Strange Shipwreck of Robinson Crusoe (Philip Zaleski, First
Things)
-REVIEW:
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Edward Tanguay, Online Reading
Club Reviews)
-REVIEW:
of DANIEL DEFOE His Life. By Paula R. Backscheider (Pat Roger, NY Times
Book Review)
-REVIEW:
Robert M. Adams: The Defoe File, NY Review of Books
The Canonisation of Daniel
Defoe by P.N. Furbank and W.R. Owens
-REVIEW:
P.N. Furbank: The Hack of Genius, NY Review of Books
Daniel Defoe: The Life and
Strange, Surprising Adventures by Richard West
-REVIEW:
of The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Daniel Defoe by
Richard West Hack with Genius: Full of Fibs and Fantasies (Keith
Waterhouse, Literary Review)
-REVIEW:
Irvin Ehrenpreis: The Moral World of Robinson Crusoe, NY Review of
Books
The World of Defoe by Peter
Earle
-REVIEW:
D.J. Enright: Visions and Revisions, NY Review of Books
The Messiah of Stockholm
by Cynthia Ozick
Foe by J.M. Coetzee
-REVIEW:
of FOE By J. M. Coetzee (Denis Donoghue, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of FOE By J. M. Coetzee (Michiko Kakutani, NY Times)
-REVIEW:
Roger Shattuck: Why Not the Best?, NY Review of Books
Friday by Michel Tournier
and translated by Norman Denny
The Ogre by Michel Tournier
and translated by Barbara Bray
Gemini by Michel Tournier
and translated by Anne Carter
The Four Wise Men by Michel
Tournier and translated by Ralph Manheim
Le Vent du Paraclet by Michel
Tournier
-REVIEW
: of DANIEL DEFOE: MASTER OF FICTIONS By Maximillian E. Novak
(Philip Hensher, Spectator)
-REVIEW
: of DANIEL DEFOE: MASTER OF FICTIONS By Maximillian Novak (Matthew
Price, National Post)
-REVIEW
: of The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Daniel Defoe by
Richard West (Keith Waterhouse, Literary Review)
FILMS:
-INFO:
Man Friday (1976)(Internet Movie DataBase)
GENERAL:
-WEB
SITES: THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NOVEL
-An
Outline of the English Novel: The Short List (San Antonio College LitWeb)
-REVIEW:
Christopher Hill: History Turned Upside Down, NY Review of Books
Criticism and Compliment:
The politics of literature in the England of Charles I by Kevin Sharpe
Feminist Milton by Joseph
Wittreich
Puritan Legacies: Paradise
Lost and the New England Tradition, 1630-1890 by Keith W.F. Stavely
The Origins of the English
Novel, 1600-1740 by Michael McKeon
The Cultural Meaning of
the Scientific Revolution by Margaret C. Jacob
-REVIEW:
of WHO BETRAYS ELIZABETH BENNET? Further Puzzles in Classic Fiction.
By John Sutherland (Daniel Zalewski, NY Times Book Review)Great Literature
On-line
Comments:
Orrin welcomes reader comments on his reviews.
Add yours here.
You misuse the word "bowdlerized." To bowdlerize means, essentially, to make something more Christian by taking out the juicy parts, like what Disney has done with Grimm's Fairy tales.
- DAniel Springle
- Jul-15-2003, 15:30
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