Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe’s life was every bit as exciting and turbulent as that of his most famous hero, Robinson Crusoe. Probably even more so, for where Crusoe spends 28 years on a desert island, Defoe found himself in wildly different roles and places of English society: a merchant trading in luxury goods, a secret agent to the king, a husband and father of eight children, a rebel cast into prison, a fighter against social injustice, a political journalist, a multiple bankrupt, a publishing entrepreneur – and the first best-selling author of a novel.
Robinson Crusoe
The Strange and Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner is the novel that made Daniel Defoe famous. It was published in April 1719 and proved such an instant success, running through four editions in the first year alone, that Defoe quickly produced two sequels: The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Serious Reflections (1720). The journalist had become a best-selling author overnight.
The Robinsonades
The Robinsonade is a particular type of narrative, usually a novel, telling of the fate of a person or group who are cast away on a deserted island. The adventures and life-stories of such Robinson-figures are closely connected, and the space of the island plays a central role for the content and structure of the narrative. Robinsonades often feature aspescts of other genres, such as travelogues, picaresque novels or utopias. In some cases, the island episode is just one of several adventurous episodes in the story.
Highlights of the collection
The Oldest Book
Are you ready to embark on another adventure? Robinson Crusoe certainly is as he sets out to explore the world once again in The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719). A copy of the sequel of the world-famous novel can be found at the Robinson Library, a second edition printed already in 1720. Almost too delicate to touch, it is the library’s oldest possession. More than 300 years have left its marks on this true treasure.
Female Robinsons
Most of us are familiar with the story of Robinson Crusoe, a man stranded on a desert island, but have you ever wondered how the story would change if Crusoe was female? This is the concern of ‘Female Robinsonades’. Stories of female castaways began to appear shortly after the publication of Defoe’s novel, pointing to a fascination with exploring an alternative perspective on the conventional story.
The Black Crusoe
The Black man submitting to his White master, Robinson Crusoe teaching Man Friday “yes, no, master.” These images are connected to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe as a novel about colonialism. Many illustrated editions feature the key scene of colonial submission. But one nineteenth-century Robinsonade reverses its message: The Black Crusoe by French author Alfred Séguin puts a Black man in the position of the enlightened Master and makes a White man dependent on his help and wisdom.
The Swiss Family Robinson
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss (1743–1818) tells the story of a pastor’s family of six who leave Switzerland around 1800 for a missionary assignment in the South Pacific. In this explicit adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, the characters in the ‘family Robinsonade’ are also shipwrecked and from then on live as the only survivors on a deserted island.
Robinson in China
Do you know that Robinson Crusoe also travelled to China? After his return to England at the end of Part One, he is eager to see his island again and to explore the world. Like many eighteenth-century merchants, he travels to the Far East. After a long sojourn in the Bay of Bengal and Indonesia, he enters China through its southern shore with some Portuguese sailors and a Jesuit priest. Together, they journey to the north and stop by the two most famous cities in that region – Nanquin and Peking.
Arctic Robinsons
Imagine someone removed Robinson Crusoe from his tropical island and placed him into the colds of Greenland to create an arctic Robinson. That might be a concept that seems hard to grasp. But two books in the collection, the autobiographical account by Ejnar Mikkselsen, An Arctic Robinson (German: Ein arktischer Robinson, 1913), and the adventure novel Nuvat the Brave: An Eskimo Robinson Crusoe (1934) by Radko Doone, do precisely that.
Illustrated Robinsons
One reason for the immense popularity of Robinson Crusoe were the richly illustrated editions the novel as well as retellings for young readers. The covers and spines of the books often show immediately recognisable moments from the novel, while the text is interspersed with vividly imagined scenes full of colour and detail. The publishing history of Robinson Crusoe is a fascinating tour through the history of book illustrations and graphic art.
Robinson and Graphic Art
Illustrations have been an important dimension of Robinson Crusoe’s popular appeal since it was first published over 300 years ago. Many of the works and artefacts in the collection have beautifully illustrated covers, as well as maps and drawings hidden among the pages. There are also several items which are not books, but rather works of visual art or new interpretations of the form.
Crusoe in Consumer Culture
Among the many books at the Robinson-Library, some curious items of everyday life can be found that one would never expect on the shelves of a literary archive: a tin of tuna, a sheet of thin orange wrapping papers, a tray with single portions of coffee cream. A closer look reveals that they all bear scenes from Robinson Crusoe. Yet what does Defoe’s novel have to do with these mundane consumer goods?
Robinson’s Animals
A common myth about Defoe’s novel is that Robinson Crusoe was alone on his island. What is often forgotten is that Robinson’s “little family” included his dog and the two cats. The island also hosts a wider range of familiar and of novel creatures that support or threaten Crusoe’s survival. These animals are ever-present throughout the story and, depicted on covers and illustrations, are repeatedly brought to the readers’ attention in the many editions of Robinson Crusoe.
Playing with Robinson
When a novel is so popular as Robinson Crusoe, it is perhaps natural that its figures will also appear in other media – like games and toys. These started appearing on the market during the 19th century and have not stopped since. The Robinson-Library contains a colourful selection of such playthings, including quartets, board games, cube puzzles and pop-up books. But what does such a shift in medium mean for the story?
Camping out with Robinson
Who has not, as a child, spent days building a fort in a remote corner of a garden or maybe even in the nearby woods, pretending to be cast away on a desert island and having to survive all on one’s own? It was surely such a childhood fantasy that inspired a little booklet from 1955 which introduces children to the skills of camping out. It gives useful tips, tells personal anecdotes, and shows in illustrations how to build a tent or a fire.