Robinson Crusoe

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2011

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe. Published in 1719, it was an immediate success and is considered the classic adventure story. There are several incidents that may have inspired the tale, although none of them exactly mirrors Defoe's thrilling yet didactic narrative. The plot is now universally known - the sailor stranded on a desert island who learns to tame the environment and the native population. The character of Friday, Crusoe's trusty companion and servant, has become almost as famous as Crusoe himself and their master-servant relationship forms one of the principal themes in the novel. Robinson Crusoe has been interpreted in myriad ways, from colonial fable to religious instruction manual to capitalist tract; although arguably above all of these, it is perhaps best known today as a children's story. With:Karen O'BrienPro-Vice Chancellor for Education at the University of Birmingham Judith HawleyProfessor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of LondonBob OwensEmeritus Professor of English Literature at the Open UniversityProducer: Natalia Fernandez.

Transcript

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0:45.2	Hello in 1719 a man aged in 1719 a man age nearly 60 published his first novel
0:52.3	It's neatly summarized in its title,
0:56.0	The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York Mariner,
1:00.5	who lived 8 and 20 years all alone in an uninhabited island on the coast of America near the mouth of the great river of Urenoque,
1:07.0	having been cast on shore by shipwreck wherein all the men perished but himself,
1:11.0	with an account of how he was at last and
1:13.4	strangely delivered by pirates. The author's name Daniel Defeffir did not appear
1:17.9	anywhere on the title page. Many readers believed they were reading a true
1:21.8	account of a Castaway desert island existence
1:24.4	and his relationship with the man he calls Friday. It was enormously popular, so much so that by
	...

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