DANIEL DEFOE:
The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
|
|
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) published The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a fictional memoir purported to be the true account of the adventures of a York mariner. The book was widely popular and Defoe followed up immediately with The Farther Adventures... published that same year, 1719. Part II tells of Crusoe's adventures and doings by sea, of his strange and unexpected doings in China, of his great journey by caravan to the Great Wall of China - which he pretentiously despised - right across Asia into Russia, and finally by sea to England. While The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures remained in print, usually combined in one volume with The Farther Adventures during the 18th-century, the second, and to a greater degree, third volume of the trilogy, The Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, With His Vision of the Angelick World, were largely forgotten thereafter. In the sequels, Crusoe is no longer an individual stranded on an island, but a man among men. The magic of the first part is forgotten and the reader loses interest in him and his doings. |
| Stothard (1790). Title-page, vol. II. Line engraving |
The Further Adventures... contain a detour of 20 pages almost irrelevant to the plot. Crusoe stops in Nankin, journeys to Peking and then north, out of China towards Moscow with a caravan of goods. Defoe's genius for realistic detail is lacking in these 2 chapters. Robinson Crusoe has no adventure; rather, he records impressions and reflections. He begins with this sweeping denouncement:
But when I come to compare the miserable people of these countries with ours, their fabrics, their manner of living, their governments, their religion, their wealth, and their glory, as some call it, I must confess I do not so much as think it worth naming, or worth my while to write of, or any that shall come after me to read.
After much discrediting of all things Chinese, Crusoe concludes that we wonder at the accomplishments of the culture only because we didn't expect to find anything.
Who was Daniel Defoe?
Why does he hold this
view?
Daniel Defoe was a successful political journalist, Puritan, merchant, and tradesman. He wrote Robinson Crusoe late in life when his views were firmly established. He claimed in the Serious Reflections... that Crusoe's story was historical and allegorical in that it was a spiritual biography. The desert island scenario in the first part were based almost word for word on actual events published in 1713.. Crusoe's eventual rescue and wealth probably reflect Defoe's puritan beliefs in the Goodness of Providence toward sinful but regenerate man. These beliefs permitted Defoe both as ambitious tradesman and believing Puritan to regard money as the general dominating article in the world. Surely a theological paradox of the fortunate Fall. Disobedience pays.
When a wealthy Crusoe makes a stopover in China in Part II, he is more annoyed with Chinese superstitions and idolatry than their general "inferiority" in the military, sciences, and engineering. Defoe's opinion on China is pre-determined by his strong beliefs that oppose everything the Chinese uphold. Dean Francis Lockier represents the general attitude of the time, an attitude similar to Defoe's:
"Surely the Chinese are no the wise people they have been cried up. True they had astronomy, gunpowder and printing for 2000 years but how little improved during this time. Worst soldiers in the world...they encourage peace. Chinese philosophers are 'all atheists' and their classics together number not more than the Pentateuch" (pg.14).
Samuel Johnson, who thought trade was the answer to cultural stagnation, also held similar views with Defoe:
-
Admire Chinese Wall alone of all Chinese things.
-
Regard pottery as the only art in which China excels.
-
Think China a backward society.
Who were his sources for
information on China? Did they influence him?
Defoe, like nearly all his writer contemporaries, never traveled to China. Robinson Crusoe sports a preface by an "Editor" who "believes the thing to be a just History of Fact; neither is there any Appearance of Fiction in it." In the 18th-century, it was a widespread convention to preface works fiction with more or less solemn protestations that they are not fiction at all. Oroonoko famously bills itself as "A true Story": "I have taken care [it] shou'd be Truth." But did people ever really make the mistake in practice? In fact they not only did, but do. Behn's "true Story" has confused many readers; for most of the 20th-century. Whether or not his unflattering depictions of the Chinese and their culture influenced his reader's opinions is open to debate.
It is widely held that Defoe used LeComte (selectively) and Dampier as sources (Shouyi, pg. 237) together with a liberal amount of personal prejudice formed by a Champion of progress. Chen Shouyi argues:
"It is seldom, if ever, that a writer is influenced in his views by mere sources. On a general subject such as China, every writer has his pet theories and his preconceived notions. One praises China because China agrees with his system of thought, usually not because China is per se praiseworthy. Another denounces China because China disagrees with him. The documentation generally follows after the stand is definitely taken" (pg.241).
 |
Justyne-Linton specialized in architectural illustration. His picture at left illustrates a moment in the story rarely depicted. But, save for verbal description, there's little in the picture to connect the drawing with Crusoe's story. The illustration is more decorative than illuminating. |
| Justyne-Linton (1862). 'Crusoe introduced to a Chinese Merchant. Wood engraving. |