Daniel Defoe (1660–1731)

“All of our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.”

I read Robinson Crusoe as it is one of the classics, and I could not be certain if I had read it as a child or not. Written by Puritan Englishman Daniel Defoe, many consider this to be the first English novel. It was published in 1719, but set in the 1650s to 1680s. The book was a great success and became one of the most widely published books in history.

The story has since been thought to be based on the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway, who lived for four years on a Pacific island called "Más a Tierra", now part of Chile. It was originally penned under the name Robinson Crusoe and thus mistakenly thought to be a true story.

Robinson leaves Yorkshire as a young man, against his father’s wishes, to go to sea. He encounters a huge storm, is miserable and shipwrecked and swears to never to go to sea again. But after getting drunk with some sailors decides he is born to be a sailor and heads off again. This time he is captured by pirates and forced to become a slave. After a few years of harsh treatment he escapes with a boy called Xury, and despite having had firsthand experience and reason to empathise with the lot of slaves Crusoe decides to make Xury his slave. He sells Xury to the captain of a Portuguese ship and makes his way to Brazil with them where he buys a plantation. Having apparently learnt nothing from his experiences about either sailing or slavery he then makes another voyage to get slaves from Africa for his plantation but is shipwrecked.

Robison finds himself on a deserted island off the coast of Venezuela, probably based on Tobago. He manages to salvage goods off the ship and sets himself to building a dwelling, planting corn, domesticating goats and the like. He also finds a Bible and becomes very religious, repenting for all the sins of his youth. He gains insight into the evils of his former life and behaviour and ponders about whether his castaway life is punishment for his sins, although interestingly never seems to have any regrets about his involvement in slavery, which actually has brought him to this point.

He then discovers “barbarous savages” landing on his island to partake in cannibalistic feasting on their enemies. On one of these visits he manages to free the intended victim, names him Friday, and guess what, makes him a slave. Eventually Robinson and Friday assist a marooned captain to regain his ship from mutineers and return to England.

I would have to say I did enjoy the parts describing Crusoe’s survival and challenges, even though this would have been far more impressive and intriguing if it had actually happened. He did seem relatively fortunate as a castaway to have a ship to plunder for goods and a seemingly endless supply of gunpowder, such that he still had a quantity to give away after 28 years.

On the other hand, although I am used to books from previous eras containing racist and colonial attitudes, and I try to view them in their context, in this instance it was extreme. I have read many other older works of fiction that are nowhere near as flagrantly supportive of slavery and entrenched in their belief in white superiority. In fact not too long after the time this book was authored my children’s ancestors were actively engaged in the anti-slavery movement. I kept on reading, waiting for the moment of insight when he realised that “these barbarous savages” were fellow humans and no better or worse than he, but other than learning to appreciate Friday’s nature, he never makes this quantum shift.

The other thing that was disappointing was the anticlimactic nature of his return to England. There is no description of how he felt, how he was received or anything other than an account of his finances. He goes on to wrap up the significant events of his life in one paltry sentence, "In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all, I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction, and had three children, two sons and one daughter; but my wife dying, and my nephew coming home with good success from a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his importunity, prevailed, and engaged me to go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies; this was in the year 1694.” And off he goes again.

So overall 2.5 stars for me. Respect for penning the first novel, creating the adventure genre, and inspiring the popular imagination about sea-faring voyages, shipwrecks and remote tropical islands. This has spawned many other famous books and films. But the rampant colonialism was a decided negative for me.… (more)

"A General History of the...Most Notorious Pirates"by Captain Charles Johnson is an absolute must-have for any history-lovers library. It's a near-contemporary account of the lives of the biggest names during the Golden Age of Piracy! For some, it's the only primary source we have!

There are 21 "chapters" in all, in my edition, detailing the life of each pirate. Alongside the usual suspects are Captains Martel, England, Davis, Anstis, Worley, Lowther, Evans, Phillips, Spriggs, Gow, and Philip Roche. Often these pirates would cross paths, sailing from Rhode Island to the Carolinas to the West Indies and beyond. Highlights include an attempted slave revolt in Madagascar; a list of Blackbeard's and Bonnet's crewmen; the Indian pirate Angria; a substantial description of the Islands of St. Thomas and Brazil; an accommodating Quaker; the destruction of Port Royal and the fate of Capt. Walter Kennedy. The latter is mentioned in my St Patrick's Day post!

I've had this copy since I was a teenager, and I'm so glad I decided to read it again after so many years. You don't need to be a pirate historian or scholar to appreciate this one. It was written for the general audience of 18th c. England, so accessibility was key. Johnson knew what the public wanted as he blended "accuracy" with shock value. In his intro, Johnson claims that English merchants suffered more [from pirates] than by the united force of France and Spain. Statistically true or not, his readers would've agreed completely. Pirates had an infamous reputation for violence and most actively participated in the slave trade. Thanks to Johnson's dramatic flair, most of our modern conception of pirates comes from A General History, with the possible exception of the works of Robert Louis Stevenson. And yet, even today, we don't know who Johnson was or even if that was their real name.… (more)

This is an excellent little book. In touching on the human condition, the fear of people in the Plague of 1665, one could not but think of the recent Covid Pandemic of 2019/2020 until 2021/2022. Here, though, Daniel Defoe writes of his being a Londoner staying in the capital through the time of the distemper, and tells of the attitudes of people and the fakery that abounded as people, particularly the poor, sought help as they, too, stayed put. Fake advice and fake remedies were many, swindlers having a hey-day until, of course, many of them died of the pestilence too. The Court moved away to Oxford and the wealthy were able to move to the countryside around London - the poor, though, had nowhere to go and died in their thousands - it is reckoned that over 68,000 died. This is but an extract from Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" but it's an interesting taster - an excellent Penguin 60s Classic.… (more)