He'd also gotten another prison term, though, and that was a problem his business failed while he was in New gate. Desperate to get back on his feet to support his wife and six children, he contacted Robert Harley, Speaker of Parliament, whom Daniel probably knew from his spying days. Robert appreciated Daniel's usefulness as a writer and manipulator of popular opinion. From then on, Daniel had a steady job as a pamphleteer for all kinds of ministries, Tory and Whig alike.
In 1706, he returned to Scotland and started up a newspaper in Edinburgh called the Post-Maniz, which of course tried to put the still-under-construction unification plans in the best possible light. But Daniel, in his eternal quest for truth, actually bothered to learn about Scotland and its people, a rather unusual thing for that time. He also set up a really impressive intelligence-gathering network. The Act of Union was made official on 1 May 1707, and Daniel was out of one job. But he still had his pamphlets to fall back on, so things were all right. Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe McMillan Publishers 1997 pp.34-39, 45-49, 59-63, 128, 214-226
The first volume of Robinson Crusoe was published on 25 April 171914, and it was a big hit, especially with the lower and middle classes. Since that one worked so well, Daniel published Moll Flanders in 1722, drawing heavily on his experiences in New gate prison to add realisms. This novel got him the label of a social historian, much, much later, of course. The point was, the public ate up this kind of thing, and Daniel wrote lots of it. He also worked for a publisher named Mr. Applebee between 1720 and 1726, who liked to publish lives of condemned criminals. Daniel used to go to prison cells and even the scaffold to receive manuscripts for these lives from the criminals themselves. He sometimes goofed up on dates and numbers, but all of these lives are wonderful studies of character and society, though often a bit too heavy on the moral lessons by today's standards.
Daniel wrote on various economic issues of the day, as well as on the problems of long-term colonization and exploration, showing that he really was paying a lot of attention to everything. He even wrote a travel book, A Tour Thro' the whole Island of Great Britain, which was highly unusual for the time in that he'd actually traveled to the places he wrote about. He was really kind of a Renaissance man, I suppose, though he didn't quite live in the right time period for that. He died in Cripple gate on 24 April 1731, of a lethargy?.
Now you can download the entire unabridged texts of both of Defoe's great Robinson Crusoe novels absolutely free! This plunder is yours for the taking. You can download it now, or if you're short on disk space, you can come here and read it online whenever you want.
Robinson Crusoe is one of the world's most popular adventure novels. Daniel Defoe based his classic tale of shipwreck and survival on an uninhabited island is based on a true story. The real Robinson Crusoe was a Scotsman named Alexander Selkirk (or Secreting).
Born in 1676, when Selkirk was 19 years old he was cited for indecent conduct in church, but before he could be reprimanded, he ran off to sea. That was in 1695. By 1703 he was the sailing master of a galley. The following year he joined a pirate expedition to the Pacific Ocean that was led by Capt. William Dampier. Selkirk's ship had Thomas Straddling as it's captain.
After spending some time in the Pacific and numerous raids on the Spanish towns and shipping, they were preparing to return to England with their booty. Their ship had suffered considerable damage in battle and Selkirk felt they needed to repair her before setting off around the Horn. The captain disagreed. After a heated argument and in a fit of anger, Selkirk refused to go any farther and demanded he be set ashore on the Island of Juan Fernandez. which was about 400 miles off the coast of Chile. This, the captain was glad to do.
Once ashore, Selkirk realized the enormity of what he had done. He thought others in the crew would join him, but none did. He changed his mind and tried to convince the captain to take him back. The captain refused and Selkirk found he had marooned himself alone on an uninhabited island. Actually this was the smart thing to do since the ship later sank killing most of those aboard, but at the time he didn't know this.
After about two years on the island he finally saw a ship and ran down to the shore to greet it. He realized almost too late that it was a Spanish ship and the
Spaniards opened fire on him as he ran for cover. They were unable to find him and eventually left. He was much more cautious after that.
Selkirk was able to domesticate some goats and cats he found on the island and these were his only companions though out his stay of almost 4 1/2 years. He was finally found in February 1709 by William Dampier, who was then pilot on a private ring expedition headed by Captain Woods Rogers.
Rogers appointed Selkirk as ship's mate and later gave him command of captured ship. For the next two years they conducted raids on the coast of Peru and Chile. They even captured a Spanish galleon. Selkirk was very well-off when they returned to London in 1711, as his share of the booty came to Ј800--a sizable fortune in those days. Selkirk soon met essayist Richard Steele, who wrote up Selkirk's story and published it as "The Englishman" in 1711. Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe McMillan Publishers 1997 pp.34-39, 45-49, 59-63, 128, 214-226
Selkirk eventually returned to his home in Scotland, where he became quite a celebrity. Though he did get married, he never quite recovered from his stay on the island. Spending much of his time alone, he didn't feel comfortable living indoors and built a sort of cave or bower behind his father's house that he stayed in. He also trained two cats to perform little feats, like he did on the island. Eventually he returned to sea and he died of fever off the coast of Africa in 1721 at the age of
While some biographers say Defoe never met Selkirk, others say the two met at the house of Mrs. Demaris Daniel in Bristol, where Selkirk told Defoe firsthand of his adventures and even gave Defoe his personal papers. Either way, there's little doubt Crusoe is largely inspired by Selkirk. He may have also been in Robert Louis Stephenson's mind when he wrote of the marooned pirate Ben Gunn in Treasure Island.
In the novel, Defoe extended Selkirk's 4 1/2 years on the island to Robinson Crusoe's 28 years. He also moved the island from off the coast of Chile far out in the Pacific Ocean to just off the coast of Venezuela. In relation to our main interest--which is pirates and piracy--before Crusoe is shipwrecked on the island he is captured by Moorish pirates from Sallee on the coast of Africa, but soon escapes. And while his rescuers are not exactly pirates, they are in the midst of a mutiny that Crusoe helps put down and brings them back to the straight and narrow.
Even though Robinson Crusoe is a fictional character, like Sherlock Holmes he has crossed over from fiction to fact in the minds of some people. There are even people on the Island of Tobago who claim to be descended from Robinson Crusoe.
The sours of the “Robinson Crusoe's Adventures”
Need is the Mother of inventions as an expression taking from woods Rodgers the author of “The sail around the world” written 1712. Woods Rodgers was the captain who found Alexander Selkirk on the island “Khan Fernandez”. П.А.Корсаков Л.Н.Толстой о Даниэле Дефо М. Просвещение 1967 стр.63
1. М. П. Алексеев: Статьи в книге «Даниель Дефо и его роман “Робинзон Крузо “ стр.5-8.»
Москва « Детская литература» 1988. стр. 3-248.
Alexander Selkirk a Scottish scat of sailor who lived in Khan Fernandez island 4 years and 4 month (1705-1709)
Defoe's hero is a typical Englishman. He has his own dignities and (short-comings) = lack= (of) shortages of his characters these are analyzed by Defoe's as the character of the main hero. The hero wants his country to be developed and to be the owner of new colonies. That is why Robinson Crusoe sells the boy in Brazil though he could escape captivity together with the boy he does it without any hesitation indifferently. He turns Friday into his servant and for slave though he makes pacific speeches against Spanish colonizers and gustier. These are common typical features almost every contemporary of the writer.
Selkirk and his like stayed in union habited islands not too long. But Robinson Crusoe lived in his island twenty eight years, two months and nineteen days. The author knew this is rather long solitude loneliness though.
The man had a strong will and energy as even comparatively less period, left to destiny itself last their human look cast of mind and then even last their speech. But lengthening the term period. Defoe go an opportunity to awake the readers' sympathy to his hero.
He also got a necessary opportunity for detailed description about moral and physical development of single man, about possible means of development of his abilities and spiritual force. This story turned into a story about inner ripening of a man, full of delicate fine physiological observations. Specialists think that Daniel Defoe felt strong influence of the philosophy of the end of the XVIII and the beginning of the XIX centuries. Especially Defoe's outlook had much in common with the ideas of one of the founders of English Enlightment John Lock the author of “An Experience (about) on Human Mind”. M. A. Shishmoreva About the translation of “Robinson Crusoe” M. “Knowledge” 1987 pp.55-58, 99, 114
Daniel Defoe borrowed an idea from John Lock about it a man in solitude could appropriate the fight to own the land and the products to all members of the society.
The influence of John Lock's ideas concerning education can be seen in Robinson's teaching Friday the truths of Christian religion.
Defoe's book is penetrated with the ideas of Enlightenment these are: glorification of reasons, optimism, and labor. “Robinson Crusoe” is a book of complex structure and of big ideological content. These things made the book popular in the Epoch of Enlightenment. These ideas put the book on the top of the belles letters of those days, these ideas made it the prototype of future realistic novel in European literature.
“Robinson Crusoe” made great impression on prominent writers and poets one of whom was Goethe, not only the men of letters of Europe but in other countries too. Great books of world literature are kept in the minds in the memories of many generations of readers not only for their significance but also what effects they had for the development of the future literature. This novel belongs to the ranks of works which are read by millions of people all the world over. The book staid alive thanks to the fact that it thought us to live and build life. Future readers should also know this educative essence of the book and they should never forget the significance of this nice creation, we must not forget the lessons of the hero.
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