Daniel Defoe
The famous story of Robinson Crusoe can be
divided into three parts: Robinson’s youth and the time up to
his shipwreck; his twenty-eight years on an uninhabited
island; his lie and adventures after being rescued from the
island. Published in 1719, Defoe places his story in the 17th
century in England, north Africa, Brazil, an island off the
coast of Venezuela and back to Europe.
The first part of the novel relates that,
against the advice of his father, Robinson wishes to pursue
his livelihood by going to sea. He does so and after a false
start has some success but a third voyage ends in slavery. He
eventually escapes and is helped to Brazil where he becomes a
successful plantation owner. He embarks on a slave gathering
expedition to West Africa but is shipwrecked off the coast of
Venezuela in a terrible storm.
The bulk of the novel attends to Robinson’s
life on the island —how he accomplishes his survival and even
establishes his "kingdom"; how he moves from a frantic state
of discontent to one of resignation and contentment; how he
meets Friday and, finally, how he leaves the island.
Though anticlimactic, the third part of the
novel traces Robinson’s securing of wealth through the honesty
and loyalty of friends, his return to England, travels through
the continent and a last trip to his island to see how those
he left there fared.
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