The adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe)

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
Date:	29/01/09 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: rich in symbolism, giving a good insight into the zietgeist of the time

Disadvantages: slow paced and often dull, Crusoe is often hard to sympathise with

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, depicts an 18th century trader gripped by a wanderlust who finds himself shipwrecked on a tropical island where he is forced to cultivate hidden survival skills, re-evaluating his own values in the process. The story is told retrospectively by Crusoe and written in a style which is extremely dry and thorough, and much of it is very tedious to read through.

Crusoe busies himself not just with the business of survival but with technological and economic advancement and the pursuit of luxury, all of which is documented exhaustively. The reader is subjected to endless painstaking descriptions of Crusoe's trial and error attempts to bake clay pots, breed goats and sow corn, interspersed with jaunts across the deserted island as Crusoe does his best to stave off loneliness and boredom. The often crushing monotony of his life is replicated very successfully, but is hardly riveting. Furthermore, Crusoe himself is not the most exciting of characters, and at times it feels like being trapped on an island with a middle aged accountant from Slough.

Whilst I didn't enjoy the book much at the time, looking back I think this might be because I overlooked a lot of its deeper symbolism. The story is more interesting if viewed as an observation on western imperialism, colonialism and economic theory- Crusoe feels compelled to control every aspect of his environment, from the livestock to the fauna to the people. Rather than choosing to live an idyllic life in the Eden into which fate has placed him, Crusoe is only happy when he is altering his surroundings in the name of progress; extending and embellishing the enclave in which he lives, turning more and more land over to crops, hoarding wealth in the form of useless diamonds and obsessing in a paranoid manner over the strengthening of his elaborate defences against in the local natives. After rescuing Friday from death at the hands of his own people, Crusoe immediately establishes himself as his master, and insists that Friday learns to speak English, exposing a mentality of perceived cultural superiority, as if other cultures are there to be subdued and assimilated.

Crusoe is also quite hard to sympathise with in that he moulds his religious ideals to fit around his own desires by employing circular logic, justifying the killing of natives when afraid of them by convincing himself that the natives are 'godless savages' and therefore can be killed legitimately by a Christian, before later deciding that they are mere 'helpless children' and therefore deserve his protection as poor unenlightened inferiors. God's will and the policy of the state can be subverted to serve the state's own best interests, it would seem. Defoe does exhibit some prescience however, having Crusoe eventually conclude that slavery and subordination are immoral as his affection towards Friday deepens.

After eventually being rescued (hardly a spoiler- how else would his diaries have survived?), Crusoe settles down on a plantation in South America before undertaking a further adventure in Eastern Europe, though this addition feels very much like an afterthought.

Robinson Crusoe is very rewarding and interesting when read as an observation on modern western political thought, and though hugely politically incorrect today, Defoe was of course writing at a time when slavery and the doctrine of manifest destiny were deemed widely acceptable. Whilst often slow-paced and dull, the book has a lot of depth and is worth the effort to read. Its enjoyable too, so long as you approach it with the right expectations, and I plan to read it again myself with that very point in mind.

Summary: A rewarding book,recommended for anyone interested in politics or economics