Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: With his Vision of the Angelick World

Robinson Crusoe #3

by Daniel Defoe, George Atherton Aitken (Editor), John Butler Yeats (Illustrator)

Without inquiring, therefore, into the advantages of solitude, and how it is to be managed, I desire to tude real] is; for I must confess I have different notions agout it, far from those which are nerally understood in the world, and far from edge those notions upon those peo Is in the primitive times, and since that also, notes; who as ted themselves into deserts and unfrequented p aces, or confined themselves to 12113, monasteries, and the like, retired, as they call it, from the world. All which, I think, have noth ing of the thing I call solitude in them, nor do they answer any of the true ends of solitude, much less those ends which are retended to be sought after by those who have ked most of those retreats from the world.

As for confinement in an island, if the scene was placed there for this ve end, it were not at all amiss. I must acknowl there was confinement from the cuj oyments of the world, and restraint fiom human society. But all that was no solitude indeed no part of rt was so, except that which, as in my story, implied to the contemplation of sublime things, and t was but a very little, as my readers well know, compared to what a length of years my forced retreat lasted.

Genres: Classics, Fiction

328 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1720

About the author

Daniel Defoe was an English novelist, journalist, merchant, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.
Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works—books, pamphlets, and journals—on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of business journalism and economic journalism.

Reviews

[MK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robinson Crusoe #3 is not a novel, it's not fiction at all, other than Defoe keeps up the pretense of writing as Robinson Crusoe, instead of himself.

It's what it say it is, serious reflections. It's mostly essays and philosophizing on religion, Divine Providence, the devil, spirits and more. An interesting bit during one of his essays was his use of other planetary bodies in our solar system to aid him in his discussion of the spirit world. I didn't take the time to look up how much knowledge was available at the time of the writing about the solar system, but his discussion of the planets, and dismissing as impossible any possibility that there could be inhabitants on any of the planetary bodies (except, perhaps, the moon :D), was interesting. I also liked the first chapter, "Of Solitude".

I really wanted to read the two appendices, which dealt with contemporary accounts of the rescue of Alexander Selkirk, whose real life marooning was what Defoe based his story of Robinson Crusoe on. They were short, but interesting.

Backing up the 'read date' from today to Dec 31, because this was a 2018 book for me, not a 2019.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which Robinson Crusoe has psychedelic visions of other planets and the realm of spirits and Satan and his legions of devils and it's 100% canon.

That's actually the last essay, entitled "A Vision of the Angelic World," an esoteric trip whose hints of Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, the pursuit of which leads only to horror and madness, seem to predict the cosmic nightmares of Arthur Machen and his successor H.P. Lovecraft. (From Machen's novella The White People : "[H]oliness works on lines that were natural once; it is an effort to recover the ecstasy that was before the Fall. But sin is an effort to gain the ecstasy and the knowledge that pertain alone to angels, . . . The saint endeavours to recover a gift which he has lost; the sinner tries to obtain something which was never his. In brief, he repeats the Fall.") It actually opens with Crusoe driven to hallucination by his island solitude - a far more realistic depiction of the psychological effects of long-term isolation than anything in the original story. Sadly, the piece is also bogged down by yet more moralizing, including an extended diatribe against atheism, complete with an entire hackneyed dialogue between a pious gentleman and a bitchy Richard Dawkins caricature who of course ends up repenting of his wicked ways.

The book as a whole really isn't a total chore to read, however. It consists of five essays which Defoe presents as having been written by his famous character Robinson Crusoe. The contents are:

Of Solitude
An Essay upon Honesty
Of the Immorality of Conversation, and the Vulgar Errors of Behavior
Of Listening to the Voice of Providence
Of the Proportion between the Christian and the Pagan World
A Vision of the Angelic World

I know they all sound perfectly dreadful and dreary, but each one surprisingly had its interesting moments. "Of the Proportion between the Christian and the Pagan World" in particular is downright horrifying in its strident call for cultural genocide in the name of Jesus, and easily ties into Crusoe's crazed xenophobia in the second half of The Farther Adventures. I mentioned Kurtz from Heart of Darkness in my review of that book, and the connection is even more disturbing here. This is exactly how such a villain is created. One might argue Defoe didn't have Conrad's perspective of hundreds of years of such imperialism, except he did. He condemns the Spanish constantly for their actions in the conquest of the so-called New World, yet willfully ignores similar English atrocities and is even supportive of the transatlantic slave trade. There is really no excuse here. Even abolitionism existed in his time.

So is this book worth it if you enjoyed Robinson Crusoe and its frequently overlooked sequel? References to Crusoe's extraordinary adventures are very few, which is certainly not what you would expect from someone supposedly writing at the end of such a wild and action-packed life. It's really just a collection of essays Defoe seems to have already had on hand that he decided to slap Crusoe's name onto for marketing purposes. If you are interested in more Defoe, Moll Flanders, Roxana, or the Fortunate Mistress, and Journal of the Plague Year are all far more entertaining than this obvious cash grab. But Serious Reflections does flesh out Crusoe's character, which is pretty cardboard in his two novels, and provides more insight into Defoe's (absolutely godawful) opinions, so there's that.

[Naia Pard]

How should you perceive the world and why the Devil is not something to be afraid of. You know, 18 century talk.

[cha cafe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not ask for a more perfect read for the Holidays. Crusoe's Serious Reflections lived up to its name and put me on a pensive mood all throughout the masterpiece.

Crusoe's escapades were set at a time when religion and morality were both construed together, as evidenced by his unfavorable views towards atheists and deists (for which I found to be interesting as to how he had to include the latter).

______________

Among the most notable lines I have laid my eyes upon were the following:

😮 "There is a kind of murder that may be committed with the tongue, that is in its nature as cruel as that of the hand. This can never be the practice of an honest man; nay, he that practices it cannot be an honest man."

😮 "As negative praise will build no man comfort, so negative virtue will not support the mind under universal contempt. Scandal is much worse than slander; for the first is founded upon real guilt, the other attacks innocence. Nothing is a scandal, but what is true; nothing is a slander, but what is false."

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Personally, as a Christian on paper, I find it ironic to regard Crusoe (and, by extension, Daniel DeFoe himself) as a 'model Christian', for he espoused the essense of the spiritual man.

Gone are the days when religion and spirituality were intertwined and regarded inseparable (historically true among the lower echelons of society). Most Christians these days perform rituals for social acceptance and for the sake of them being done, blindly following the religious norms as salvation is incentivized by the Church.

As rulers were likewise human and were, thus, susceptible to flaws, perhaps there was not much incentive to heed Divine Providence. Hence, when Western empires proselytized and propagated the faith, they had seemingly good intentions to include the Eastern civilizations in the world's salvation, disparaging local traditions and beliefs, making conquests self-serving in effect. Over time, the rift between religion and spirituality grew as spirituality waned with religion’s increasing reach, which only meant that the quantity of converts do not necessarily translate to genuine acceptance of the Gospel doctrines.

Crusoe's ideas still linger in my mind, and I will most likely remember fragments of it from time to time, relating them to how things were before and how things are now after three long centuries. Everybody can absolutely read this and take passages as their own as people see fit.