Robinson Crusoe: Classics Illustrated #10
48
Robinson Crusoe: Classics Illustrated #10
48eBook
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Overview
Daniel Defoe has woven a fantastic tale of the adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a young lad form the City of York in England who yearns for the life of the sea. His father wants Robinson to attend law school and get a good education, but Robinson decides otherwise. Follow Robinson as he survives pirates, shipwrecks and cannibals.
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From its beginnings in the 1940’s to today, Classics Illustrated continues to encourage a love of reading and adventure in youthful minds through beautifully-illustrated comic book adaptations of the world’s most beloved stories by the world’s greatest authors.
A collection of Classics Illustrated books is an inviting start to any young person’s library.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781620280751 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | First Classics |
| Publication date: | 07/11/2013 |
| Series: | Classics Illustrated , #10 |
| Sold by: | De Marque |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 48 |
| File size: | 35 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 9 Years |
About the Author
English author Daniel Defoe was at times a trader, political activist, criminal, spy and writer, and is considered to be one of England’s first journalists. A prolific writer, Defoe is known to have used at least 198 pen names over the course of a career in which he produced more than five hundred written works. Defoe is best-known for his novels detailing the adventures of the castaway Robinson Crusoe, which helped establish and popularize the novel in eighteenth century England. In addition to Robinson Crusoe, Defoe penned other famous works including Captain Singleton, A Journal of the Plague Year, Captain Jack, Moll Flanders and Roxana. Defoe died in 1731.
Read an Excerpt
I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York, of a good Family, tho 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 afterward 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 our selves, and write our Name Crusoe, and so my Companions always call’d me.
I had two elder Brothers, one of which was Lieutenant Collonel to an English Regiment of Foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Coll. 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 did know what was become of me.
Being the third Son of the Family, and not bred to any Trade, my Head began to be fill’d very early with rambling Thoughts: My Father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent Share of Learning, as far as House-Education, and a Country Free-School generally goes, and design’d 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 Perswasions of my Mother and other Friends, that there seem’d to be something fatal in that Propension of Nature tending directly to the Life of Misery which was to be-fal me.
My Father, a wise and grave Man, gave me serious and excellent Counsel against what he foresaw was my Design. He call’d me one Morning into his Chamber, where he was confined by the Gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this Subject: He ask’d me what Reasons more than a meer wandring Inclination I had for leaving my Father’s House and my native Country, where I might be well introduced, and had a Prospect of raising my Fortunes by Application and Industry, with a Life of Ease and Pleasure. He told me it was for Men of desperate Fortunes on one Hand, or of aspiring, superior Fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon Adventures, to rise by Enterprize, and make themselves famous in Undertakings of a Nature out of the common Road; that these things were all either too far above me, or too far below me; that mine was the middle State, or what might be called the upper Station of Low Life, which he had found by long Experience was the best State in the World, the most suited to human Happiness, not exposed to the Miseries and Hardships, the Labour and Sufferings of the mechanick Part of Mankind, and not embarass’d with the Pride, Luxury, Ambition and Envy of the upper Part of Mankind. He told me, I might judge of the Happiness of this State, by this one thing, viz. That this was the State of Life which all other People envied, that Kings have frequently lamented the miserable Consequences of being born to great things, and wish’d they had been placed in the Middle of the two Extremes, between the Mean and the Great; that the wise Man gave his Testimony to this as the just Standard of true Felicity, when he prayed to have neither Poverty or Riches.
He bid me observe it, and I should always find, that the Calamities of Life were shared among the upper and lower Part of Mankind; but that the middle Station had the fewest Disasters, and was not expos’d to so many Vicissitudes as the higher or lower Part of Mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many Distempers and Uneasinesses either of Body or Mind, as those were who, by vi-cious Living, Luxury and Extravagancies on one Hand, or by hard Labour, Want of Necessaries, and mean or insufficient Diet on the other Hand, bring Distempers upon themselves by the natural Consequences of their Way of Living; That the middle Station of Life was calculated for all kind of Vertues and all kinds of Enjoyments; that Peace and Plenty were the Hand-maids of a middle Fortune; that Temperance, Moderation, Quietness, Health, Society, all agreeable Diversions, and all desirable Pleasures, were the Blessings attending the middle Station of Life; that this Way Men went silently and smoothly thro’ the World, and comfortably out of it, not embarass’d with the Labours of the Hands or of the Head, not sold to the Life of Slavery for daily Bread, or harrast with perplex’d Circumstances, which rob the Soul of Peace, and the Body of Rest; not enrag’d with the Passion of Envy, or secret burning Lust of Ambition for great things; but in easy Circumstances sliding gently thro the World, and sensibly tasting the Sweets of living, without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and learning by every Day’s Experience to know it more sensibly.
After this, he press’d me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young Man, not to precipitate my self into Miseries which Nature and the Station of Life I was born in, seem’d to have provided against; that I was under no Necessity of seeking my Bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the Station of Life which he had been just recommending to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the World, it must be my meer Fate or Fault that must hinder it, and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus discharg’d his Duty in warning me against Measures which he knew would be to my Hurt: In a word, that as he would do very kind things for me if I would stay and settle at Home as he directed, so he would not have so much Hand in my Misfortunes, as to give me any Encouragement to go away: And to close all, he told me I had my elder Brother for an Example, to whom he had used the same earnest Perswasions to keep him from going into the Low Country Wars, but could not prevail, his young Desires prompting him to run into the Army where he was kill’d; and tho’ he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if I did take this foolish Step, God would not bless me, and I would have Leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his Counsel when there might be none to assist in my Recovery.
I observed in this last Part of his Discourse, which was truly Prophetick, tho’ I suppose my Father did not know it to be so himself; I say, I observed the Tears run down his Face very plentifully, and especially when he spoke of my Brother who was kill’d; and that when he spoke of my having Leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so mov’d, that he broke off the Discourse, and told me, his Heart was so full he could say no more to me.
I was sincerely affected with this Discourse, as indeed who could be otherwise; and I resolv’d not to think of going abroad any more, but to settle at home according to my Father’s Desire. But alas! a few Days wore it all off; and in short, to prevent any of my Father’s farther Importunities, in a few Weeks after, I resolv’d to run quite away from him. However, I did not act so hastily neither as my first Heat of Resolution prompted, but I took my Mother, at a time when I thought her a little pleasanter than ordinary, and told her, that my Thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the World, that I should never settle to any thing with Resolution enough to go through with it, and my Father had better give me his Consent than force me to go without it; that I was now Eighteen Years old, which was too late to go Apprentice to a Trade, or Clerk to an Attorney; that I was sure if I did, I should never serve out my time, and I should certainly run away from my Master before my Time was out, and go to Sea; and if she would speak to my Father to let me go but one Voyage abroad, if I came home again and did not like it, I would go no more, and I would promise by a double Diligence to recover that Time I had lost.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Daniel Defoe: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
Robinson Crusoe
Appendix A: Preface and Publisher's Introduction to Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe (1720)
Appendix B: From Charles Gildon, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Mr. D..... De F... (1719)
Appendix C: Castaway Narratives
1. From Ibn Tufayl, Hai Ebn Yokdhan (tr. 1708)
2. Accounts of Alexander Selkirk
3. Richard Steele, The Englishman, No. 26 (1713)
4. From Penelope Aubin, The Strange Adventures of the Count de Vinevil and his Family (1721)
5. From Leendert Hasenbosch, An Authentick Relation of the Many Hardships and Sufferings of a Dutch Sailor (1728)
Appendix D: Uses of Solitude
1. Richard Baxter, "Of Conversing with God in Solitude" (1664)
2. From Mary, Lady Chudleigh, "Of Solitude" (1710)
3. From Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, "The Petition for an Absolute Retreat" (1713)
4. Daniel Defoe, "Of Solitude" (1720)
5. Alexander Pope, "Ode on Solitude" (1736)
6. Edmund Burke, "Society and Solitude" (1757)
7. From Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emilius and Sophia (tr. 1762)
8. William Cowper, "Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk" (1782)
9. Charlotte Smith, Sonnet XLIV, "Written in the Church-yard at Middleton in Sussex" (1789)
10. From Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere" (1798)
11. William Wordsworth, "Nutting" (1800)
12. William Cowper, "The Castaway" (1803)
Appendix E: Economic Contexts
1. From John Locke, "Of Property" (1698)
2. From Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776)
3. From Karl Marx, Capital (tr. 1887)
4. From Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (tr. 1930)
Appendix F: Defoe on Slavery and the African Trade
1. From Reformation of Manners, A Satyr (1702)
2. From An Essay upon the Trade to Africa (1711)
3. From A Review of the State of the British Nation (1711, 1712)
4. From Colonel Jack (1722)
5. From A Plan of the English Commerce (1728)
Appendix G: Cannibalism
1. Michel de Montaigne, "Of Cannibals" (tr. 1711)
2. From César de Rochefort, The History of the Caribby-Islands (tr. 1666)
3. William Dampier, "Of the Reports about Cannibals" (1703)
4. From Daniel Defoe, Serious Reflections (1720)
Appendix H: Illustrations of Friday's Rescue
1. Anonymous (1720)
2. Anonymous (1722)
3. Clément Pierre Marillier (1787)
4. Charles Ansell (1790)
5. Thomas Stothard (1790)
6. George Cruikshank (1831)
7. J.J. Grandville (1840)
8. Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne) (1846)
9. Jules Fesquet (1877)
10. Otis Turner (director) (1913)
Select Bibliography
What People are Saying About This
"There is nothing archaic about Vance's miraculous reading of this classic tale.... This stellar audiobook brings out all the elements of this original castaway tale." —-Booklist Starred Audio Review
Reading Group Guide
1. Robinson Crusoe is regarded as one of the first English novels. What were the qualities that defined the English novel? How has the meaning of the word "novel" changed? Do we use the term more loosely now or has it evolved into something entirely different?
2. Defoe's novel is also thought to be one of the earliest examples of the use of psychological realism. Defoe posits himself as "editor" and Crusoe as the author. How does his use of voice and point of view differ from that of his contemporaries? How much of his fiction might be influenced by his background in journalism and nonfiction?
3. How much of Robinson Crusoe is supposed to be "real" and journalistic and how much is intended to be allegorical? How does Defoe use Crusoe to espouse certain values? In what sense is the book a morality story?
4. Examine Crusoe's relationships with Xury and Friday. Critics have seen Robinson Crusoe as representative of British colonialism and imperialism, glorifying the subjugation of other cultures. How does Defoe seem to comment on the institution of slavery and issues of race?
5. How do Robinson Crusoe's experiences on the island comment on the society from which he has been separated?
6. How does what we now call the Protestant work ethic pervade Defoe's novel? Robinson seems to channel all of his energy into the pursuit of manual labor; the story is a series of daily routines and a tribute to work. To what end? Is his newfound work ethic accompanied by a spiritual awakening?
7. How is value established on Crusoe's island? How does the language of economics inform the text?
8. What is the nature of RobinsonCrusoe's relationship with his environment? Does he regard his surroundings as hostile? Does he seek to re-create the landscape?