Robinson Crusoe

The 'Robinson Crusoe' blog posts and podcast are being moved to their mother-ship, CandlelightStories.com . We've put together a nice new site design that is fully blog-oriented but maintains all of our great story, game and movie content.

So make sure you subscribe to the Candlelight Stories feed to keep getting our posts.

This will probably be the last post here. You'll like the Candlelight Stories feed much better. We promise!

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 17 (Conclusion)

Robinson Crusoe and Friday finally have a ship and a way off the island. Crusoe relates his journey home and how he resolves the outstanding issues he left behind in his life. He meets with one final harrowing adventure on his journey home and uses it to lead into the final thoughts of his great tale. So ends one of the greatest adventures ever written and so began the great art of the English novel. Daniel Defoe created a character that has influenced every writer and every reader's imagination since he wrote this incredible book.

It has been an uncommon pleasure to read this difficult book and to make my way through the unusual language of Mr. Defoe. Perhaps by reading him, one can learn to think a bit like him. With great language comes great subtlety of thought.

By the way, Defoe did write a sequel to this book. It's called 'The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.' Perhaps a podcast of that book should be...

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 14

Crusoe builds his friendship with Friday, teaching him english, Christianity, hunting with a gun, and working with tools. The two men develop a deep and trusting bond once Crusoe gets over his struggles with suspicion and doubts about Friday's intentions. We find ourselves at that part of the novel that best illustrates what many critics of Defoe's novel say is a glorification of English colonialism and empire. To be sure, that is part of what is going on in the book. However, there is more to it than that. Defoe, at times, seems close to sowing seeds of doubt about the English world he lived in and its beliefs about its place in the world. Pay very close attention to the conversations between Friday and Crusoe. They move in directions entirely unanticipated by Crusoe. He is constantly surprised by how loyal, intelligent, and civilized Friday turns out to be in his very deepest nature.

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 13

Cannibals come to Crusoe's island and make him believe there is a possibility of confrontation. But in this section of the book Crusoe meets his companion, Friday. He considers this man to be his servant and slave. An odd assumption since it is actually he, Robinson Crusoe, who is the intruder in Friday's part of the world. This must have something to do with the way certain nations operated in those days and, in some cases, still do.

At any rate, Crusoe begins to teach Friday English and becomes more assured of their friendship.

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 12

Welcome to the Robinson Crusoe podcast. If you have switched over from the 'Pirate Jack' podcast, you've reached the right place. All the rest of the novel will be podcast from right here.

Crusoe worries about being attacked if his presence is discovered by cannibals who visit the island. He finds a spectacular cave and then, during a night storm, hears a cannon shot.

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 11

Crusoe makes another shocking discovery and sets himself on a course of action that leads him to one of the book's most interesting passages. It is here, in Crusoe's struggle with his own outrage and his ideas about what makes for civilized behavior, that Defoe begins to turn the novel in a new direction. He is examining the underpinnings of Western civilization. What makes a person civilized? What does the right of self defense really mean? This kind of thinking and questioning is perhaps somewhat lacking in certain countries today. Notice also how religion, for Crusoe, seems to have a moderating, calming influence. He resists using it to justify himself or his actions.

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 9

Let's get on with our story, shall we? It's a good story and reading it is a lot of fun. Difficult, but fun. Defoe's language is up and down and backward and forward. It makes you think fast. Try picking up the book and reading any part of it out loud and fast. It's tricky. But it's a very good way to learn more about how Defoe's mind worked. Amazing. Are you starting to wonder why Crusoe constantly reminds us of things and says things like: 'As I told you before,' or 'As I said earlier?'

He almost insists that you follow the correct sequence of events, but he skips ahead in order to achieve a much more important goal. He wants you to follow along with his state of mind. That's why his story-telling language is so twisty and folds back on itself so often. This is certainly one of the most fantastic things about Defoe's novel. Its obsessive focus on the man's state of mind sets a precedent that influences almost all of literature following Defoe. It is really this that makes the book so modern.

This story holds surprises for us. Stay tuned until next week...

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 8

Robinson Crusoe struggles to harvest his corn, make bread, build a boat and sew some clothes. The efforts he makes are constantly set back by mistakes and errors in judgement. He deals with his lack of expertise in the various arts that he must call upon with a certain amount of humor. Pay attention to how Crusoe constantly monitors his state of mind and is ever willing to discuss his mistakes and to poke fun at himself.

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 7

Crusoe details how he learns to grow crops that will help sustain him when his ammunition runs out. He journeys to the far side of the island, finding better land and more plentiful game there. He describes the difficulties overcome in learning to weave baskets and cut lumber from a tree. He also writes about his religious thinking and how he begins to come to terms with his solitary condition.

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 6

Crusoe continues to offer the reader his journal entries, describing how he brought supplies from off the shipwreck. He battles sickness and finds a way to speed his recovery. He begins to read a copy of the Bible that he finds in one of his chests. This causes him to ponder the nature of his deliverance and he begins to read the book regularly for the first time in his life. Defoe is here beginning his fascinating analysis of a human being's place in the world and how hardship can lead a person to question the very nature of existence.

As Crusoe recovers from his sickness, he begins to venture farther abroad on the island, discovering things that will assist his survival efforts.

The illustration is by NC Wyeth (1920). Crusoe reads his Bible and ponders the nature of his deliverance

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 5

Crusoe explains how he made his own tools and built his home on the island. He begins to show us his journal entries which track each day's activities. He goes hunting and, much to his surprise, begins to use agriculture. All his mental efforts are bent toward making his survival upon the island long-term. He even considers what he will have to do to ensure his survival when his health and strength begin to fail. The inclusion of the journal entries, which actually repeat some of the very things Crusoe has already told us, are a striking literary device on the part of Daniel Defoe. Pay attention to how the voice (I mean the literary voice, not the audio voice!) of Crusoe changes ever so slightly with these journal entries as compared to the rest of his narration. Crusoe also begins struggle with religious thoughts and wonders whether some sort of divine providence is behind his being the sole survivor of the shipwreck.

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 3

In this section of the novel, Crusoe continues making good on his escape. He then makes a series of fateful decisions as he tries to get on his feet and make a life for himself.

Defoe begins to get into the slavery issue and how it plays the major role in Crusoe's single most important decision.

The illustration is by NC Wyeth (1920). It illustrates the conversation between a young Robinson Crusoe and his father from the first part of the podcast novel.

Download Robinson Crusoe - Part 2

Crusoe learns more of what it means to be a seaman. He is captured off the west coast of Africa and made a slave.

In this section of the novel we get into Defoe's treatment of the issues of slavery and race. Reading the early parts of the novel, one might get the mistaken impression that Defoe is intolerant of other races. This is not the case. One must remember that he was writing his book before 1719. His continued treatment of the slavery issue throughout the novel is many years ahead of its time and shows him to be a deeply thoughtful and serious commentator on the social injustices he saw around him.

Click here to download Robinson Crusoe - Part 1

Here is the little surprise I promised last week. 'Robinson Crusoe' by Daniel Defoe is one of the greatest novels in existence. It marks the start of English novel-writing. There's so much more in this book than one would ever know from the silly movies that have been based upon it. In fact, there has never been a remotely good movie made of this incredible book. It goes so much farther than most writing at exploring the human spirit and the foundations of civilization. It is one of the most modern books I have ever read. It was written in 1719. You'll know what I mean if you listen to it. It just keeps coming at you without any letup.

I may move this over to a new blog site specifically for Robinson Crusoe. But for now, this will do just fine. I will try to add some introductory information about Defoe over the next week or so.

Listen and have a good time.