The fertility of Defoe's invention in unfolding his story is unsurpassed in English fiction. Here we have in infinite variety all that "charm of circumstance" which Stevenson speaks of in A Gossip on Romance. Not that Robinson Crusoe has escaped criticism. Just after its publication Defoe was asked several amusing questions on minor details. How, for example, could Crusoe fill his pockets with biscuit from the wreck, when, as it is expressly said, he left his clothes on shore? How did it happen that he had at a later time no clothes but goatskins, though he had brought large bundles of them from the ship? And how could he see the old goat's eyes in the cave when it was dark as pitch? Other critics, disregarding trivial errors, real or imaginary, claimed that it would be impossible for a man to endure twenty-odd years of solitude. If death did not take him, it has been said, he would become, long before that time, a savage or a madman. Selkirk, it might be pointed out, fell into that stupor which precedes the utter decay of reason, though his confinement lasted for only a little more than four years. Against his critics, Defoe adroitly maintained that Robinson Crusoe was not essentially fiction at all, but an allegory of his own career; for had not he himself, in the midst of intense literary labor, really lived a life of silence and solitude away from the haunts of men? and had he not survived "the most afflicting circumstances that ever man went through"? Whether the author or his critics were right in their main contention, is a fair question for debate; but no one can help believing that Defoe himself, had he been transported to the West Indies, would have conducted himself much like his hero, who was one with him in tempera ment. Defoe's position once granted, the manner in which he worked out his theme is beyond ordinary praise. Others have since tried their hand at a lone island, and they have all failed, except Stevenson in Treasure Island, which is a romance of quite a different type. The imitations of Robinson Crusoe, which may be counted by the score, have either been long forgotten by the reading public, or been consigned to the nursery, that last refuge for inane books this side of oblivion. Consider, for example, the Swiss Family Robinson, which is still read by children. At the very beginning, the author of this book lets slip from his grasp, never to regain it, the interesting problem that has made Robinson Crusoe immortal. As you may know, Defoe's solitary is displaced in this story by a family consisting of father, mother, and four sons, who are wrecked on one of the most fertile islands in Melanesia. They have but to stretch out their hands and all things are supplied them in abundance. There is no struggle here for existence against spare or improper food, or against the terrible. loneliness and despair that visited Crusoe when he had no companions but goats and a parrot. Exact as it may be in its natural history, the Swiss Family Robinson is a futile romance, for it is fashioned by no informing mind. To say the truth, the adventures of Robinson Crusoe likewise wander to little or no purpose at the beginning and especially at the end of the story; but from the time the hero is shipwrecked until he leaves his island, all adventure centers mainly on the one problem which fills the author's imagination. Not only does Crusoe manage to render his isolation tolerable; but in the end he lives comfortably, and finds a sort of enjoyment apart from civilization. If there is any poetry in solitude, we havę it in Robinson Crusoe. Finally one should not forget that serious import of the romance to which Defoe called attention when he declared it to be a symbol of his own life. It is also in a measure the symbol of the lives of all men who have to win their place in the world through their own efforts; presenting to them, in the character of Crusoe, an example of "invincible patience under the worst of misery" " and of "undaunted resolution under the greatest and most discouraging circumstances." DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY THE best brief account of Defoe's life and writings is Daniel Defoe, by W. Minto, in the English Men of Letters Series, published by the Macmillan Company, New York. The main facts of Defoe's life are also given by Leslie Stephen in his article on the author in the Dictionary of National Biography. The most complete biography, however, is Daniel Defoe, by W. Lee (3 vols. London, 1869). The relation of Robinson Crusoe to Defoe's own career is studied in detail by T. Wright in The Life of Daniel Defoe (one volume, London and New York, 1894). For a very interesting appreciation of Defoe, see Leslie Stephen's essay on "Defoe's Novels " in Hours in a Library (first series, London, 1874). Defoe's works, comprising two hundred and fifty-four separate titles in Wright's bibliography, have never been collected, though there are many so-called complete editions. See, for example, for Defoe's romances the Complete Works, in 16 volumes, with an introduction by G. H. Maynadier, published by Thomas Y. Crowell and Company, New York City. Some of Defoe's miscellaneous tracts and poems are contained in The Earlier Life and the Chief Earlier Works of Daniel Defoe, one volume, edited by H. Morley, and published by George Routledge and Sons, New York City. The following list contains the more interesting single publications along with the date of their first issue. A brief sentence, indicating the contents of a book or a pamphlet, has been added in those cases where none appears in the Introduction: xxxii Descriptive Bibliography 1698. An Essay Upon Projects. 1698. An Argument Showing that a Standing Army, with Consent of Parliament, is not Inconsistent with a Free Government. 1701. The True-Born Englishman. 1702. The Shortest Way with the Dissenters: or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church. 1703. A Hymn to the Pillory. 1704. The Storm: or, a Collection of the Most Remarkable Casualties and Disasters, which Happened in the Late Dreadful Tempest, both by Sea and Land. 1705. The Consolidator: or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon. A satire on contemporary society. 1706. A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal. 1709. The History of the Union of Great Britain. A very interesting account, based upon personal observation, of events connected with the union of England and Scotland in 1707. 1713. Reasons Against the Succession of the House of Hanover. This and the two following pamphlets are ironical tracts in favor of the House of Hanover and against the Jacobites; but they were misunderstood and led to Defoe's commitment to Newgate for scandalous libel. 1713. And What If the Pretender Should Come? 1713. An Answer to a Question that Nobody Thinks of, viz., What if the Queen Should Die? 1715. An Appeal to Honour and Justice, Though It Be of His Worst Enemies, by Daniel Defoe. Being a True Account of His Conduct in Publick Affairs. Fearing the approach of death (for he had just suffered a stroke of apoplexy), Defoe here explains the principles which had guided him in his political career. 1715. The Family Instructor. A manual of conduct for parents, children, and servants, still readable. 1719. The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. A facsimile reprint, with an introduction by Austin |