I have long hated Robinson Crusoe since having to study it as a set text at university. From beginning to end, the book bored me beyond measure with its repetitive narrative and unlikable protagonist. It tells the story of an idle middle-class Englishman who, ignoring his father's sage advice, embarks on a reckless seafaring career in the pursuit of a fortune he doesn't need. After some initial mishaps which do nothing to deter him from his mercenary course, he is eventually shipwrecked whilst undertaking an illegal slaving voyage to Guinea. The sole survivor of the disaster, he is washed up on a tropical island and marooned for 28 years. Much of the plot is occupied with Robinson contriving to survive by furnishing his shelter and providing himself with a stable food supply, with many reflections on God and deliverance along the way. At the halfway point in the novel, he finds a human footprint in the sand which throws him into great fear and paranoia. Things pick up slightly when he battles cannibals and mutineers but it's a lazy attempt by Defoe to instil some action in a painfully dragging tale.
Despite my dislike of this novel, it has remained immensely popular throughout the centuries and since its release in 1719, probably holds the record for the most times a book has been translated into different languages. The concept of a lone, castaway man surmounting overwhelming odds is evidently of high universal appeal and has prompted countless spin-offs, adaptations and re-imaginings. There are also some sequels by Defoe himself which I hope never to read. It's a colonial piece on the merits of masculine independence, entrepreneurship, inventiveness and perseverance yet also a moralising entreaty on religion and duty to God. The character of Crusoe is selfish and materialistic beyond imagining, a literal embodiment of western enterprise and dominance. He owns a plantation, sells slaves, murders defenceless beasts, laments his own pitiful condition and when finally rescued, falls back into the immoral lifestyle he claimed to repent. His crimes are so numerous and abhorrent, I made a list of them whilst reading, which can be found in the comments below. This is the man who became the role model of civilisation and he exemplifies everything wrong in the world.
Rating: 1/5
2 comments:
24 Shitty Things Robinson Crusoe Does:
Ignores his parents' well meaning advice and goes to sea to satisfy idle wanderlust
Ignores captain's advice about quitting a seafaring career after initial misfortunes
Embarks on a voyage as a gentleman out of snobbery and refuses to lend a hand
Throws a Moor overboard and threatens the same to Xury during his escape from slavery
Shoots a sleeping lion for no good reason then complains about the waste of ammo
Sells Xury into ten years of slavery after all his help in securing his own freedom
Buys two slaves to work his plantation in Brazil
Leaves behind a lucrative business to pursue illegal slave trading in Africa for mercenary motives
Shows immense ingratitude for being the sole survivor of the shipwreck
Indiscriminately shoots every animal he finds, including inedible birds, a baby dolphin and pregnant turtles
Murders a goat's kid he orphans after it refuses to feed
Only prays for selfish reasons or when he's scared
Reads the Bible when he's drunk
Kills his pet kittens when he's fed up of them walking everywhere
Throws a stick at a parrot and knocks it out
Cuts sea birds wings so they can't fly, to keep as unwilling companions
Displays great cowardice and paranoia towards the savages and mutineers
Makes Friday his slave and threatens to kill him if he resorts to cannibalism
Murders many innocent savages living by their own laws
Abandons Friday's father and the Spanish men he promised to rescue
Soon after rescue, rather than being grateful of his deliverance, he abandons years of religious wisdom and quibbles over about his financial affairs
Stands by laughing as his pet savage antagonises and kills a bear for fun
Eventually marries and is probably a bastard to his wife
Traffics women over to the island for the new residents to have sex with
I had fond memories of an old TV adaptation of Robinson Crusoe, which was obviously censored and romanticised! I've never read the book and have no desire to, what a horrible character!
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