Robinson and Daniel Defoe. The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe The Hero of Daniel Defoe Robinson

Daniel Defoe

The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

a sailor from York, who lived twenty-eight years completely alone on an uninhabited island off the coast of America near the mouth of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew of the ship died except him; with an account of his unexpected release by pirates, written by himself

I was born in 1632 in the city of York into a wealthy family of foreign origin. My father was from Bremen and settled first in Hull. Having made a good fortune through trade, he left his business and moved to York. Here he married my mother, whose relatives were called Robinsons - an old surname in those places. After them they called me Robinson. My father's last name was Kreutzner, but, according to the English custom of distorting foreign words, they began to call us Crusoe. Now we ourselves pronounce and write our surname this way; That's what my friends always called me too.

I had two older brothers. One served in Flanders, in an English infantry regiment, the same one that was once commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart; he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was killed in the battle with the Spaniards near Dunkirchen. I don’t know what happened to my second brother, just as my father and mother didn’t know what happened to me.

Since I was the third in the family, I was not prepared for any craft, and my head from a young age was filled with all sorts of nonsense. My father, who was already very old, gave me a fairly tolerable education to the extent that one can get it by being raised at home and attending a city school. He intended me to become a lawyer, but I dreamed of sea voyages and did not want to hear about anything else. This passion of mine for the sea took me so far that I went against my will - moreover: against the direct prohibition of my father and neglected the pleas of my mother and the advice of friends; it seemed that there was something fatal in this natural attraction, pushing me towards the woeful life that was my lot.

My father, a sedate and intelligent man, guessed about my idea and warned me seriously and thoroughly. One morning he called me into his room, to which he was confined by gout, and began to rebuke me hotly. He asked what other reasons, besides vagabond inclinations, could I have for leaving my father's house and my native country, where it is easy for me to go out into people, where I can increase my fortune through diligence and labor and live in contentment and pleasure. Those who leave their homeland in pursuit of adventure, he said, are either those who have nothing to lose, or ambitious people eager to create a higher position for themselves; by embarking on enterprises that go beyond the framework of everyday life, they strive to improve matters and cover their name with glory; but such things are either beyond my power or humiliating for me; my place is the middle, that is, what can be called the highest level of modest existence, which, as he was convinced from many years of experience, is for us the best in the world, the most suitable for human happiness, freed from both need and deprivation, physical labor and suffering , falling to the lot of the lower classes, and from luxury, ambition, arrogance and envy of the upper classes. How pleasant such a life is, he said, I can judge by the fact that everyone placed in different conditions envy him: even kings often complain about the bitter fate of people born for great deeds, and regret that fate did not place them between two extremes - insignificance and greatness, and the sage speaks out in favor of the middle, as the measure of true happiness, when he prays to heaven not to send him either poverty or wealth.

I just have to observe, said my father, and I will see that all the hardships of life are distributed between the higher and lower classes and that least of all of them fall to the lot of people of average wealth, who are not subject to as many vicissitudes of fate as the nobility and the common people; even from illnesses, physical and mental, they are more insured than those whose illnesses are caused by vices, luxury and all kinds of excesses, on the one hand, hard work, poverty, poor and insufficient nutrition, on the other, being thus natural consequence of lifestyle. The average state is the most favorable for the flourishing of all virtues, for all the joys of life; abundance and peace are his servants; he is accompanied and blessed by his moderation, temperance, health, peace of mind, sociability, all kinds of pleasant entertainment, all kinds of pleasures. A person of average wealth goes through his life's path quietly and smoothly, without burdening himself with either physical or mental backbreaking labor, without being sold into slavery for a piece of bread, without tormented by the search for a way out of complicated situations that deprive the body of sleep and the soul of peace, without being consumed envy, without secretly burning with the fire of ambition. Surrounded by contentment, he easily and imperceptibly glides towards the grave, judiciously tasting the sweets of life without an admixture of bitterness, feeling happy and learning through everyday experience to understand this more clearly and deeply.

Then my father persistently and very benevolently began to beg me not to be childish, not to rush headlong into the whirlpool of need and suffering, from which the position I occupied in the world by birth, it seemed, should have protected me. He said that I was not forced to work for a piece of bread, that he would take care of me, try to lead me along the path that he had just advised me to take, and that if I turned out to be a failure or unhappy, I would only have to blame to bad luck or to your own oversight. By warning me against a step that will bring me nothing but harm, he thus fulfills his duty and abdicates all responsibility; in a word, if I stay at home and arrange my life according to his instructions, he will be a good father to me, but he will not have a hand in my death, encouraging me to leave. In conclusion, he gave me the example of my older brother, whom he also persistently convinced not to take part in the Dutch war, but all his persuasion was in vain: carried away by his dreams, the young man fled to the army and was killed. And although (this is how my father ended his speech) he will never stop praying for me, he tells me directly that if I do not give up my crazy idea, I will not have God’s blessing. The time will come when I will regret that I neglected his advice, but then, perhaps, there will be no one to help me correct the wrong I have done.

I saw how during the last part of this speech (which was truly prophetic, although, I think, my father himself did not suspect it) copious tears streamed down the old man’s face, especially when he spoke about my murdered brother; and when the priest said that the time for repentance would come for me, but there would be no one to help me, he cut off his speech out of excitement, declaring that his heart was full and he could not utter a word anymore.

Daniel Defoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson family. - His escape from his parents' house

From early childhood I loved the sea more than anything in the world. I envied every sailor who set off on a long voyage. For hours at a time I stood on the seashore and without taking my eyes off the ships passing by.

My parents didn't like it very much. My father, an old, sick man, wanted me to become an important official, serve in the royal court and receive a large salary. But I dreamed of sea voyages. It seemed to me the greatest happiness to wander the seas and oceans.

My father guessed what was on my mind. One day he called me over and said angrily:

I know: you want to run away from your home. This is crazy. You must stay. If you stay, I will be a good father to you, but woe to you if you run away! - Here his voice trembled, and he quietly added:

Think about your sick mother... She cannot bear to be separated from you.

Tears sparkled in his eyes. He loved me and wanted the best for me.

I felt sorry for the old man, I firmly decided to stay in my parents’ house and not think about sea voyages anymore. But alas! - Several days passed, and nothing remained of my good intentions. I was again drawn to the sea shores. I began to dream of masts, waves, sails, seagulls, unknown countries, lights of lighthouses.

Two or three weeks after my conversation with my father, I finally decided to run away. Choosing a time when my mother was cheerful and calm, I approached her and respectfully said:

I am already eighteen years old, and these years are too late to study judgeship. Even if I entered the service somewhere, I would still run away to distant countries after a few years. I so want to see foreign lands, to visit both Africa and Asia! Even if I get attached to something, I still don’t have the patience to see it through to the end. I ask you, persuade my father to let me go to sea at least for a short time, for a test; If I don’t like the life of a sailor, I will return home and never go anywhere else. Let my father let me go voluntarily, otherwise I will be forced to leave home without his permission.

My mother got very angry with me and said:

I’m surprised how you can think about sea voyages after your conversation with your father! After all, your father demanded that you forget about foreign lands once and for all. And he understands better than you what business you should do. Of course, if you want to destroy yourself, leave even this minute, but you can be sure that your father and I will never give consent to your journey. And in vain you hoped that I would help you. No, I won't say a word to my father about your meaningless dreams. I don’t want that later, when life at sea brings you to poverty and suffering, you could reproach your mother for indulging you.

Then, many years later, I found out that my mother nevertheless conveyed to my father our entire conversation, from word to word. The father was saddened and said to her with a sigh:

I don’t understand what he needs? In his homeland, he could easily achieve success and happiness. We are not rich people, but we have some means. He can live with us without needing anything. If he goes on a journey, he will experience great hardships and regret that he did not listen to his father. No, I can't let him go to sea. Far from his homeland, he will be lonely, and if trouble happens to him, he will not have a friend who could console him. And then he will repent of his recklessness, but it will be too late!

And yet, after a few months, I fled from my home. It happened like this. One day I went to the city of Gull for several days. There I met a friend who was about to go to London on his father's ship. He began to persuade me to go with him, tempting me with the fact that travel on the ship would be free.

And so, without asking either father or mother, at an unkind hour! - On September 1, 1651, at the age of nineteen, I boarded a ship bound for London.

It was a bad act: I shamelessly abandoned my elderly parents, neglected their advice and violated my filial duty. And I very soon had to repent of what I had done.

First adventures at sea

No sooner had our ship left the mouth of the Humber than a cold wind blew from the north. The sky was covered with clouds. A strong rocking motion began.

I had never been to sea before, and I felt bad. My head began to spin, my legs began to tremble, I felt nauseous, and I almost fell. Every time a big wave hit the ship, it seemed to me that we would drown right away. Every time a ship fell from a high crest of a wave, I was sure that it would never rise again.

A thousand times I swore that if I remained alive, if my foot set foot on solid ground again, I would immediately return home to my father and never in my entire life would set foot on the deck of a ship again.

These prudent thoughts lasted only as long as the storm raged.

But the wind died down, the excitement subsided, and I felt much better. Little by little I began to get used to the sea. True, I had not yet completely recovered from seasickness, but by the end of the day the weather had cleared up, the wind had completely died down, and a delightful evening had arrived.

I slept soundly all night. The next day the sky was just as clear. The calm sea with complete calm, all illuminated by the sun, presented such a beautiful picture as I had never seen before. There was no trace left of my seasickness. I immediately calmed down and felt happy. With surprise, I looked around the sea, which just yesterday seemed violent, cruel and menacing, but today it was so meek and gentle.

Then, as if on purpose, my friend, who tempted me to go with him, comes up to me, pats me on the shoulder and says:

Well, how are you feeling, Bob? I bet you were scared. Admit it: you were very scared yesterday when the breeze blew?

Breeze? Nice breeze! It was a mad squall. I could not even imagine such a terrible storm!

Storms? Oh, you fool! Do you think this is a storm? Well, you’re still new to the sea: no wonder you’re scared... Let’s go, let’s order some punch, drink a glass and forget about the storm. Look how clear the day is! Wonderful weather, isn't it? To shorten this sad part of my story, I will only say that things went as usual with sailors: I got drunk and drowned in wine all my promises and oaths, all my laudable thoughts about immediately returning home. As soon as the calm came and I stopped being afraid that the waves would swallow me, I immediately forgot all my good intentions.

On the sixth day we saw the town of Yarmouth in the distance. The wind was headwind after the storm, so we moved forward very slowly. At Yarmouth we had to drop anchor. We stood waiting for a fair wind for seven or eight days.

During this time, many ships from Newcastle came here. We, however, would not have stood that long and would have entered the river with the tide, but the wind became fresher, and after five days it blew with all its might. Since the anchors and anchor ropes on our ship were strong, our sailors did not show the slightest alarm. They were confident that the ship was completely safe, and, according to the custom of sailors, they devoted all their free time to fun activities and amusements.

However, on the ninth day in the morning the wind became even fresher, and soon a terrible storm broke out. Even the experienced sailors were greatly frightened. Several times I heard our captain, passing me in and out of the cabin, muttering in a low voice: “We are lost! We're lost! End!"

Still, he did not lose his head, vigilantly observed the work of the sailors and took all measures to save his ship.

Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe was first published in April 1719. The work gave rise to the development of the classic English novel and made the pseudo-documentary genre of fiction popular.

The plot of "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" is based on the true story of boatswain Alexander Selkir, who lived on a desert island for four years. Defoe rewrote the book many times, giving its final version a philosophical meaning - Robinson's story became an allegorical depiction of human life as such.

Main characters

Robinson Crusoe- the main character of the work, delirious about sea adventures. Spent 28 years on a desert island.

Friday- a savage whom Robinson saved. Crusoe taught him English and took him with him.

Other characters

Captain of the ship- Robinson saved him from captivity and helped him return the ship, for which the captain took Crusoe home.

Xuri- a boy, a prisoner of Turkish robbers, with whom Robinson fled from the pirates.

Chapter 1

From early childhood, Robinson loved the sea more than anything in the world and dreamed of long voyages. The boy's parents did not like this very much, as they wanted a calmer, happier life for their son. His father wanted him to become an important official.

However, the thirst for adventure was stronger, so on September 1, 1651, Robinson, who was eighteen years old at that time, without asking permission from his parents, and a friend boarded a ship departing from Hull to London.

Chapter 2

On the first day the ship was caught in a strong storm. Robinson felt bad and scared from the strong motion. He swore a thousand times that if everything worked out, he would return to his father and never swim in the sea again. However, the ensuing calm and a glass of punch helped Robinson quickly forget about all the “good intentions.”

The sailors were confident in the reliability of their ship, so they spent all their days having fun. On the ninth day of the voyage, a terrible storm broke out in the morning and the ship began to leak. A passing ship threw a boat at them and by evening they managed to escape. Robinson was ashamed to return home, so he decided to set sail again.

Chapter 3

In London, Robinson met a respectable elderly captain. A new acquaintance invited Crusoe to go with him to Guinea. During the journey, the captain taught Robinson shipbuilding, which was very useful for the hero in the future. In Guinea, Crusoe managed to profitably exchange the trinkets he brought for gold sand.

After the captain's death, Robinson went to Africa again. This time the journey was less successful; on the way, their ship was attacked by pirates - Turks from Saleh. Robinson was captured by the captain of a robber ship, where he remained for almost three years. Finally, he had a chance to escape - the robber sent Crusoe, the boy Xuri and the Moor to fish in the sea. Robinson took with him everything he needed for a long voyage and on the way threw the Moor into the sea.

Robinson was on his way to Cape Verde, hoping to meet a European ship.

Chapter 4

After many days of sailing, Robinson had to go ashore and ask the savages for food. The man thanked them by killing a leopard with a gun. The savages gave him the skin of the animal.

Soon the travelers met a Portuguese ship. On it Robinson reached Brazil.

Chapter 5

The captain of the Portuguese ship kept Xuri with him, promising to make him a sailor. Robinson lived in Brazil for four years, farming sugar cane and producing sugar. Somehow, familiar merchants suggested that Robinson travel to Guinea again.

“In an evil hour” - on September 1, 1659, he stepped onto the deck of the ship. “It was the same day on which eight years ago I ran away from my father’s house and so madly ruined my youth.”

On the twelfth day, a strong squall hit the ship. The bad weather lasted twelve days, their ship sailed wherever the waves drove it. When the ship ran aground, the sailors had to transfer to a boat. However, four miles later, an “angry wave” capsized their ship.

Robinson was washed ashore by a wave. He was the only one of the crew to survive. The hero spent the night on a tall tree.

Chapter 6

In the morning Robinson saw that their ship had washed closer to the shore. Using spare masts, topmasts and yards, the hero made a raft, on which he transported planks, chests, food supplies, a box of carpentry tools, weapons, gunpowder and other necessary things to the shore.

Returning to land, Robinson realized that he was on a desert island. He built himself a tent from sails and poles, surrounding it with empty boxes and chests for protection from wild animals. Every day Robinson swam to the ship, taking things that he might need. At first Crusoe wanted to throw away the money he found, but then, after thinking about it, he left it. After Robinson visited the ship for the twelfth time, a storm carried the ship out to sea.

Soon Crusoe found a convenient place to live - in a small smooth clearing on the slope of a high hill. Here the hero pitched a tent, surrounding it with a fence of high stakes, which could only be overcome with the help of a ladder.

Chapter 7

Behind the tent, Robinson dug a cave in the hill that served as his cellar. Once, during a severe thunderstorm, the hero was afraid that one lightning strike could destroy all his gunpowder and after that he put it into different bags and stored it separately. Robinson discovers that there are goats on the island and begins to hunt them.

Chapter 8

In order not to lose track of time, Crusoe created a simulated calendar - he drove a large log into the sand, on which he marked the days with notches. Along with his things, the hero transported two cats and a dog that lived with him from the ship.

Among other things, Robinson found ink and paper and took notes for some time. “At times despair attacked me, I experienced mortal melancholy, in order to overcome these bitter feelings, I took up a pen and tried to prove to myself that there was still a lot of good in my plight.”

Over time, Crusoe dug a back door in the hill and made furniture for himself.

Chapter 9

From September 30, 1659, Robinson kept a diary, describing everything that happened to him on the island after the shipwreck, his fears and experiences.

To dig the cellar, the hero made a shovel from “iron” wood. One day there was a collapse in his “cellar”, and Robinson began to firmly strengthen the walls and ceiling of the recess.

Soon Crusoe managed to tame the kid. While wandering around the island, the hero discovered wild pigeons. He tried to tame them, but as soon as the chicks' wings became stronger, they flew away. Robinson made a lamp from goat fat, which, unfortunately, burned very dimly.

After the rains, Crusoe discovered seedlings of barley and rice (shaking bird food onto the ground, he thought that all the grains had been eaten by rats). The hero carefully collected the harvest, deciding to leave it for sowing. Only in the fourth year could he afford to separate some of the grain for food.

After a strong earthquake, Robinson realizes that he needs to find another place to live, away from the cliff.

Chapter 10

The waves washed the wreckage of the ship onto the island, and Robinson gained access to its hold. On the shore, the hero discovered a large turtle, whose meat replenished his diet.

When the rains began, Crusoe fell ill and developed a severe fever. I was able to recover with tobacco tincture and rum.

While exploring the island, the hero finds sugar cane, melons, wild lemons, and grapes. He dried the latter in the sun to prepare raisins for future use. In a blooming green valley, Robinson arranges a second home for himself - a “dacha in the forest”. Soon one of the cats brought three kittens.

Robinson learned to accurately divide the seasons into rainy and dry. During rainy periods he tried to stay at home.

Chapter 11

During one of the rainy periods, Robinson learned to weave baskets, which he really missed. Crusoe decided to explore the entire island and discovered a strip of land on the horizon. He realized that this was a part of South America where wild cannibals probably lived and was glad that he was on a desert island. Along the way, Crusoe caught a young parrot, which he later taught to speak some words. There were many turtles and birds on the island, even penguins were found here.

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Robinson got hold of good pottery clay, from which he made dishes and dried them in the sun. Once the hero discovered that pots could be fired in a fire - this became a pleasant discovery for him, since now he could store water in the pot and cook food in it.

To bake the bread, Robinson made a wooden mortar and a makeshift oven out of clay tablets. Thus passed his third year on the island.

Chapter 14

All this time, Robinson was haunted by thoughts about the land he saw from the shore. The hero decides to repair the boat, which was thrown ashore during the shipwreck. The updated boat sank to the bottom, but he could not launch it. Then Robinson set about making a pirogue from a cedar tree trunk. He managed to make an excellent boat, however, just like the boat, he could not lower it to the water.

The fourth year of Crusoe's stay on the island has ended. His ink had run out and his clothes were worn out. Robinson sewed three jackets from sailor peacoats, a hat, jacket and pants from the skins of killed animals, and made an umbrella from the sun and rain.

Chapter 15

Robinson built a small boat to go around the island by sea. Rounding the underwater rocks, Crusoe swam far from the shore and fell into the current of the sea, which carried him further and further. However, soon the current weakened and Robinson managed to return to the island, which he was infinitely happy about.

Chapter 16

In the eleventh year of Robinson's stay on the island, his supplies of gunpowder began to deplete. Not wanting to give up meat, the hero decided to come up with a way to catch wild goats alive. With the help of "wolf pits" Crusoe managed to catch an old goat and three kids. Since then he started raising goats.

“I lived like a real king, not needing anything; Next to me there was always a whole staff of courtiers [tamed animals] devoted to me - there were not only people.”

Chapter 17

Once Robinson discovered a human footprint on the shore. “In terrible anxiety, not feeling the ground under my feet, I hurried home, to my fortress.” Crusoe hid at home and spent the whole night thinking about how a man ended up on the island. Calming himself, Robinson even began to think that it was his own trail. However, when he returned to the same place, he saw that the footprint was much larger than his foot.

In fear, Crusoe wanted to loose all the cattle and dig up both fields, but then he calmed down and changed his mind. Robinson realized that savages come to the island only sometimes, so it is important for him to simply not catch their eye. For additional security, Crusoe drove stakes into the gaps between the previously densely planted trees, thus creating a second wall around his home. He planted the entire area behind the outer wall with willow-like trees. Two years later, a grove grew green around his house.

Chapter 18

Two years later, on the western part of the island, Robinson discovered that savages regularly sailed here and held cruel feasts, eating people. Fearing that he might be discovered, Crusoe tried not to shoot, began to light the fire with caution, and acquired charcoal, which produces almost no smoke when burning.

While searching for coal, Robinson found a vast grotto, which he made his new storeroom. “It was already the twenty-third year of my stay on the island.”

Chapter 19

One day in December, leaving the house at dawn, Robinson noticed the flames of a fire on the shore - the savages had staged a bloody feast. Watching the cannibals from a telescope, he saw that with the tide they sailed from the island.

Fifteen months later, a ship sailed near the island. Robinson burned a fire all night, but in the morning he discovered that the ship had been wrecked.

Chapter 20

Robinson took a boat to the wrecked ship, where he found a dog, gunpowder and some necessary things.

Crusoe lived for two more years “in complete contentment, without knowing hardship.” “But all these two years I was only thinking about how I could leave my island.” Robinson decided to save one of those whom the cannibals brought to the island as a sacrifice, so that the two of them could escape to freedom. However, the savages appeared again only a year and a half later.

Chapter 21

Six Indian pirogues landed on the island. The savages brought with them two prisoners. While they were busy with the first one, the second one started to run away. Three people were chasing the fugitive, Robinson shot two with a gun, and the third was killed by the fugitive himself with a saber. Crusoe beckoned the frightened fugitive to him.

Robinson took the savage to the grotto and fed him. “He was a handsome young man, tall, well-built, his arms and legs were muscular, strong and at the same time extremely graceful; he looked about twenty-six years old." The savage showed Robinson with all possible signs that from that day on he would serve him all his life.

Crusoe began to gradually teach him the necessary words. First of all, he said that he would call him Friday (in memory of the day on which he saved his life), taught him the words “yes” and “no”. The savage offered to eat his killed enemies, but Crusoe showed that he was terribly angry at this desire.

Friday became a real comrade for Robinson - “never has a single person had such a loving, such a faithful and devoted friend.”

Chapter 22

Robinson took Friday with him hunting as an assistant, teaching the savage to eat animal meat. Friday began helping Crusoe with the housework. When the savage learned the basics of English, he told Robinson about his tribe. The Indians, from whom he managed to escape, defeated Friday's native tribe.

Crusoe asked his friend about the surrounding lands and their inhabitants - the peoples who live on the neighboring islands. As it turns out, the neighboring land is the island of Trinidad, where wild Carib tribes live. The savage explained that the “white people” could be reached by a large boat, this gave Crusoe hope.

Chapter 23

Robinson taught Friday to shoot a gun. When the savage mastered English well, Crusoe shared his story with him.

Friday said that once a ship with “white people” crashed near their island. They were rescued by the natives and remained to live on the island, becoming “brothers” for the savages.

Crusoe begins to suspect Friday of wanting to escape from the island, but the native proves his loyalty to Robinson. The savage himself offers to help Crusoe return home. The men took a month to make a pirogue from a tree trunk. Crusoe placed a mast with a sail in the boat.

“The twenty-seventh year of my imprisonment in this prison has come.”

Chapter 24

After waiting out the rainy season, Robinson and Friday began to prepare for the upcoming voyage. One day, savages with more captives landed on the shore. Robinson and Friday dealt with the cannibals. The rescued prisoners turned out to be the Spaniard and Friday's father.

The men built a canvas tent especially for the weakened European and the savage’s father.

Chapter 25

The Spaniard said that the savages sheltered seventeen Spaniards, whose ship was wrecked on a neighboring island, but those rescued were in dire need. Robinson agrees with the Spaniard that his comrades will help him build a ship.

The men prepared all the necessary supplies for the "white people", and the Spaniard and Friday's father went after the Europeans. While Crusoe and Friday were waiting for guests, an English ship approached the island. The British on the boat moored to the shore, Crusoe counted eleven people, three of whom were prisoners.

Chapter 26

The robbers' boat ran aground with the tide, so the sailors went for a walk around the island. At this time Robinson was preparing his guns. At night, when the sailors fell asleep, Crusoe approached their captives. One of them, the captain of the ship, said that his crew rebelled and went over to the side of the “gang of scoundrels.” He and his two comrades barely convinced the robbers not to kill them, but to land them on a deserted shore. Crusoe and Friday helped kill the instigators of the riot, and tied up the rest of the sailors.

Chapter 27

To capture the ship, the men broke through the bottom of the longboat and prepared for the next boat to meet the robbers. The pirates, seeing the hole in the ship and the fact that their comrades were missing, got scared and were going to return to the ship. Then Robinson came up with a trick - Friday and the captain's assistant lured eight pirates deep into the island. The two robbers, who remained waiting for their comrades, unconditionally surrendered. At night, the captain kills the boatswain who understands the rebellion. Five robbers surrender.

Chapter 28

Robinson orders to put the rebels in a dungeon and take the ship with the help of the sailors who sided with the captain. At night, the crew swam to the ship, and the sailors defeated the robbers on board. In the morning, the captain sincerely thanked Robinson for helping to return the ship.

By order of Crusoe, the rebels were untied and sent deep into the island. Robinson promised that they would be left with everything they needed to live on the island.

“As I later established from the ship’s log, my departure took place on December 19, 1686. Thus, I lived on the island for twenty-eight years, two months and nineteen days.”

Soon Robinson returned to his homeland. By that time, his parents had died, and his sisters with their children and other relatives met him at home. Everyone listened with great enthusiasm to Robinson's incredible story, which he told from morning until evening.

Conclusion

D. Defoe's novel “The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” had a huge impact on world literature, laying the foundation for an entire literary genre - “Robinsonade” (adventure works describing the life of people in uninhabited lands). The novel became a real discovery in the culture of the Enlightenment. Defoe's book has been translated into many languages ​​and filmed more than twenty times. The proposed brief retelling of “Robinson Crusoe” chapter by chapter will be useful for schoolchildren, as well as anyone who wants to familiarize themselves with the plot of the famous work.

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Robinson family. His escape from his parents' house From early childhood I loved the sea more than anything in the world. I envied every sailor who set off on a long voyage. By whole For hours I stood on the seashore and without taking my eyes off ships passing by. My parents didn't like it very much. Father, an old, sick man, wanted me to become an important official, serve in the royal court and received a large salary. But I dreamed of sea voyages. To me It seemed like the greatest happiness to wander the seas and oceans. My father guessed what was on my mind. One day he called me to his place and said angrily: - I know: you want to run away from your home. This is crazy. You must stay. If you stay, I will be a good father to you, but woe to you if you will run away! - Here his voice trembled, and he added quietly: - Think about sick mother... She cannot bear to be separated from you. Tears sparkled in his eyes. He loved me and wanted the best for me. I felt sorry for the old man, I firmly decided to stay in my parents' house and no longer think about sea voyages. But alas! - several days passed, and There is nothing left of my good intentions. I was again drawn to the sea shores. I began to dream about masts, waves, sails, seagulls, unknown people countries, lights of lighthouses. Two or three weeks after my conversation with my father, I finally decided run away. Choosing a time when my mother was cheerful and calm, I approached her and respectfully said: - I’m already eighteen years old, and these years are too late to study refereeing. business. Even if I entered the service somewhere, I would still go through a few would have fled to distant lands. I really want to see strangers region, visit both Africa and Asia! If I get attached to some I still don't have the patience to see it through to the end. I ask you to, persuade my father to let me go to sea at least for a short time, for testing; if I don’t like the life of a sailor, I will return home and never go anywhere else I'll leave. Let my father let me go voluntarily, otherwise I will be forced leave home without his permission. My mother got very angry with me and said: - I’m surprised how you can think about sea voyages after your conversation with father! After all, your father demanded that you forget about him once and for all. foreign lands. And he understands better than you what business you should do. Of course, if you want to destroy yourself, leave at least this minute, but you can be sure that your father and I will never agree to your journey. And in vain you hoped that I would help you. No, I didn't say a word I'll tell my father about your meaningless dreams. I don't want it to happen later when life at sea brings you to want and suffering, you could reproach your mother in that she indulged you. Then, many years later, I found out that my mother had given it to my father. our entire conversation, from word to word. The father was saddened and told her with a sigh: - I don’t understand what he needs? In his homeland he could easily achieve success and happiness. We are not rich people, but we have some means. He can live with us without needing anything. If he starts wander, he will experience great hardships and regret that he did not listen father. No, I can't let him go to sea. He will be far from his homeland lonely, and if trouble happens to him, he will not have a friend who could to console him. And then he will repent of his folly, but he will late! And yet, after a few months, I ran away from my home. Happened This is true. One day I went to the city of Gull for several days. There I met one friend who was planning to go to London on his ship father. He began to persuade me to go with him, tempting me with the fact that travel on the ship will be free. And so, without asking either father or mother, at an unkind hour! - 1 September 1651, in the nineteenth year of my life, I boarded a ship, heading to London. It was a bad act: I shamelessly abandoned my elderly parents, neglected their advice and violated his filial duty. And very soon I had to repent of what I did.

CHAPTER TWO

First adventures at sea Before our ship had time to leave the mouth of the Humber, a wind blew from the north. cold wind. The sky was covered with clouds. A strong rocking motion began. I had never been to sea before, and I felt bad. I have a head I started to feel dizzy, my legs began to tremble, I felt nauseous, and I almost fell. Every time, when a big wave hit the ship, it seemed to me that we were We'll drown. Every time a ship fell from a high crest of a wave, I was I'm sure he'll never get up again. A thousand times I swore that if I remained alive, if my leg would return steps on solid ground, I will immediately return home to my father and never for the rest of my life I will never go on the deck of a ship again. These prudent thoughts were enough for me only for the time until a storm was raging. But the wind died down, the excitement subsided, and I felt much better. Little by little I began to get used to the sea. True, I have not yet completely gotten rid of seasickness, but by the end of the day the weather cleared up, the wind died down completely, It was a delightful evening. I slept soundly all night. The next day the sky was the same clear. Quiet sea with complete calm, all illuminated by the sun, presented such a beautiful picture as I have never seen before. From There was no trace of my seasickness left. I immediately calmed down and felt funny. With surprise I looked around the sea, which only yesterday seemed violent, cruel and menacing, but today it was so meek and affectionate. Then, as if on purpose, my friend who seduced me comes up to me go with him, pats him on the shoulder and says: - Well, how are you feeling, Bob? I bet you were scared. Admit it: you were very scared yesterday when the breeze blew? - Is there a breeze? Nice breeze! It was a mad squall. I can imagine could not such a terrible storm! - Storms? Oh, you fool! Do you think this is a storm? Well, you're still at sea newcomer: no wonder he was scared... Let’s go and give the order to file let's have some punch, drink a glass and forget about the storm. Look how clear it is day! Wonderful weather, isn't it? To cut this sorrowful part my story, I will only say that things went as usual with sailors: I got drunk and drowned all his promises and oaths in wine, all his laudable thoughts of returning home immediately. As soon as it came calm and I stopped being afraid that the waves would swallow me, I immediately forgot all your good intentions. On the sixth day we saw the town of Yarmouth in the distance. The wind after the storm was oncoming, so we moved forward very slowly. In Yarmouth we I had to drop anchor. We stood waiting for a fair wind for seven or eight days. During this time, many ships from Newcastle came here. We, however, they would not have stood that long and would have entered the river with the tide, but The wind became fresher, and after five days it blew with all its might. Since the anchors and anchor ropes on our ship were strong, our the sailors did not show the slightest alarm. They were sure that the ship is in complete safety, and, according to the custom of the sailors, they gave all their free time for fun and entertainment. However, on the ninth day in the morning the wind became even fresher, and soon terrible storm. Even the experienced sailors were greatly frightened. I'm somewhat I once heard our captain, passing me in and out of the cabin, muttered in an undertone: “We are lost! We are lost! The end!” Still, he did not lose his head, vigilantly watched the work of the sailors and took all measures to save his ship. Until now I had not felt fear: I was sure that this storm would also It will go well, just like the first one. But when the captain himself declared that everyone the end had come for us, I was terribly frightened and ran out of the cabin onto the deck. Never in my life have I seen such a terrible sight. By sea, like high mountains, huge waves were moving, and every three to four minutes such a mountain was falling upon us. At first I was numb with fear and could not look around. When Finally I dared to look back, I realized what a disaster had broken out over us. On two heavily laden ships that stood nearby on anchor, the sailors cut the masts so that the ships would be at least a little freed from gravity. Someone shouted in a desperate voice that the ship ahead was in half a mile from us, immediately disappeared under water. Two more ships lost their anchors and the storm carried them out to sea. What was there waiting for them? All their masts were knocked down by the hurricane. Small ships held up better, but some of them also had to suffer: two or three boats rushed past our sides straight into the open sea. In the evening, the navigator and boatswain came to the captain and told him that for To save the ship, it is necessary to cut down the foremast. - You can’t hesitate for a minute! - they said. - Order it, and we will cut it down her. “We’ll wait a little longer,” the captain objected. - Maybe there's a storm will settle down. He really didn’t want to cut the mast, but the boatswain began to prove that, if you leave the mast, the ship will go to the bottom, and the captain willy-nilly agreed. And when the foremast was cut down, the mainmast began to sway so much and rock the ship, so it had to be cut down too. Night fell, and suddenly one of the sailors, going down into the hold, shouted that the ship was leaking. Another sailor was sent into the hold, and he reported that the water had already risen four feet. Then the captain commanded: - Pump out the water! All to the pumps! When I heard this command, my heart sank in horror: I it seemed that I was dying, my legs gave way, and I fell backwards on bed But the sailors pushed me aside and demanded that I not shirk work. - You've been idle enough, it's time to work hard! - they said. There was nothing to do, I went to the pump and began to diligently pump out water. At this time, small cargo ships that could not resist winds, raised anchors and went out to the open sea. Seeing them, our captain ordered the cannon to be fired to give them know that we are in mortal danger. Hearing a cannon salvo and Not understanding what was the matter, I imagined that our ship had crashed. I felt so scary that I fainted and fell. But at that time everyone cared about saving my own life, and they didn’t pay attention to me. None asked to know what happened to me. One of the sailors began to pump into my place, pushing me away with his foot. Everyone was sure that I was already dead. I lay there like that for a very long time. When I woke up, I got back to work. We They worked tirelessly, but the water in the hold rose higher and higher. It was obvious that the ship was going to sink. True, the storm was starting gradually subside, but for us there was not the slightest opportunity hold out on the water until we enter the harbor. Therefore the captain kept firing his cannons, hoping that someone would save us from death. Finally, the small ship closest to us risked lowering a boat, to give us help. The boat could capsize every minute, but it still came closer to us. Alas, we could not get into it, since there was no no possibility of mooring to our ship, although people rowed with all their might strength, risking their lives to save ours. We threw them a rope. They're long It was not possible to catch him, as the storm carried him to the side. But, to Fortunately, one of the daredevils contrived and after many unsuccessful attempts grabbed the rope by the very end. Then we pulled the boat under our stern and every single one of them descended into it. We wanted to get to their ship, but We couldn’t resist the waves, and the waves carried us to the shore. It turned out that This is the only direction you can row. Less than a quarter of an hour had passed before our ship began to sink into the water. The waves that tossed our boat were so high that they prevented us from saw the shores. Only in the shortest moment, when our boat was thrown to the crest of the wave, we could see that there was a gathering on the shore a large crowd: people were running back and forth, preparing to give us help, when we get closer. But we moved towards the shore very slowly. Only in the evening did we manage to get to land, and even then with the greatest difficulties. We had to walk to Yarmouth. A warm welcome awaited us there: the inhabitants of the city, who already knew about our misfortune, gave us good housing, treated us to an excellent lunch and provided us with money so that we could get there wherever we want - to London or to Hull. Not far from Hull was York, where my parents lived, and, of course, I should have returned to them. They would forgive me for my unauthorized escape, and we all you would be so happy! But the crazy dream of sea adventures did not leave me even now. Although the sober voice of reason told me that new ones were waiting for me at sea dangers and troubles, I again began to think about how I could get on the ship and travel the seas and oceans all over the world. My friend (the same one whose father owned the lost ship) was now gloomy and sad. The disaster that happened depressed him. He introduced me to his father, who also did not stop grieving about sunken ship. Having learned from my son about my passion for sea travel, the old man looked at me sternly and said: - Young man, you should never go to sea again. I I heard that you are cowardly, spoiled and lose heart at the slightest danger. Such people are not fit to be sailors. Come home soon and make peace with your family. Have you experienced firsthand how dangerous it is to travel? by sea. I felt that he was right and could not object. But still I don't I returned home because I was ashamed to appear in front of my loved ones. It seemed to me that all our neighbors would mock me; I was I am sure that my failures will make me the laughing stock of all my friends and acquaintances. Subsequently, I often noticed that people, especially in their youth, believe what is shameful is not those unscrupulous actions for which we call them fools, but those good and noble deeds that they perform in moments of repentance, although Only for these things can we call them reasonable. That was how I was at that time. Memories of the disasters I experienced during the shipwreck, little by little they were erased, and after living in Yarmouth for two or three weeks, I did not go to Hull, and to London. CHAPTER THREE Robinson is captured. Escape My great misfortune was that during all my adventures I did not join the ship as a sailor. True, I would have to work more than I'm used to, but in the end I would learn seamanship and could Over time, become a navigator, and perhaps even a captain. But at that time I was so unreasonable that of all the paths he always chose the worst. Because at that time I had smart clothes and money in my pocket, I always came to the ship as an idle scamp: he did nothing there and did nothing didn't study. Young tomboys and slackers usually end up in bad company and In no time at all, they completely lose their way. The same fate awaited and me, but fortunately, upon arriving in London I was able to meet a respectable elderly captain who took great part in me. Not long before, he sailed on his ship to the shores of Africa, to Guinea. This trip gave him considerable profit, and now he was going again go to the same places. He liked me because at that time I was a good conversationalist. He often spent his free time with me and, having learned what I wanted to see overseas countries, invited me to set sail on his ship. “It won’t cost you anything,” he said, “I won’t charge you no money for travel or food. You will be my guest on the ship. If you take some things with you and you will be able to sell them very profitably them in Guinea, you will receive the entire profit. Try your luck - maybe maybe you'll be lucky. Since this captain enjoyed general confidence, I willingly accepted him. invitation. Going to Guinea, I took with me some goods: I bought forty pounds sterling of various trinkets and glassware, who found good sales among savages. I obtained these forty pounds with the assistance of close relatives, with which I was in correspondence with: I told them that I was going to do trade, and they persuaded my mother, and perhaps my father, to help me at least an insignificant amount in my first venture. This trip to Africa was, one might say, my only successful travel. Of course, I owed my success entirely to selflessness and the captain's kindness. During the journey, he studied mathematics with me and taught me shipbuilding. He took pleasure in sharing his experience, and for me to listen to him and learn from him. The journey made me both a sailor and a merchant: I exchanged for my trinkets five pounds and nine ounces of gold dust, for which On his return to London he received a considerable sum. So, I could consider myself a wealthy industrialist running a successful trade with Guinea. But, unfortunately for me, my friend the captain, soon after returning to England died, and I had to make a second journey at my own risk, without friendly advice and help. I sailed from England on the same ship. It was the most unfortunate thing the journey that man has ever undertaken. One day at dawn, when after a long swim we were walking between The Canary Islands and Africa, we were attacked by pirates - sea robbers. These were Turks from Saleh. They noticed us from a distance and with all sails They set off after us. At first we hoped that we would be able to escape from them, and All sails were also raised. But it soon became clear that in five or six hours they will certainly catch up with us. We realized that we needed to prepare for battle. We have there were twelve guns, and the enemy had eighteen. About three o'clock in the afternoon the robber ship caught up with us, but the pirates made a big mistake: instead of approaching us from the stern, they We approached from the left side, where we had eight guns. Taking advantage of them mistake, we aimed all these guns at them and fired a volley. There were at least two hundred Turks, so they responded to our firing not only with cannons, but also with a weapons salvo from two hundred guns. Fortunately, no one was hit, everyone remained safe and sound. After this fight, the pirate ship retreated half a mile and began to prepare for new attack. We, for our part, prepared for a new defense. This time the enemies approached us from the other side and took us boarding, that is, hooked onto our side with hooks; sixty people rushed onto the deck and first of all rushed to chop the masts and tackle. We met them with rifle fire and cleared the deck of them twice, but nevertheless, we were forced to surrender, since our ship was no longer suitable for further voyage. Three of our men were killed, eight wounded. We were taken as prisoners to the seaport of Saleh, belonged to the Moors. Other Englishmen were sent inland, to the court of the cruel Sultan, and the captain of the robber ship kept me with him and made me his slave, because I was young and agile. I cried bitterly: I remembered my father’s prediction that sooner or later late, trouble will happen to me and no one will come to my aid. I thought that It was me who suffered such a misfortune. Alas, I had no idea that they were waiting for me There are even more difficult troubles ahead. Since my new master, the captain of a robber ship, left me with me, I hoped that when he went off to rob ships again, he will take me with him too. I was firmly convinced that in the end he will be captured by some Spanish or Portuguese military ship and then my freedom will be returned to me. But I soon realized that these hopes were in vain, because at the very first Once my master went to sea, he left me at home to do the black work usually performed by slaves. From that day on, I only thought about escape. But it was impossible to escape: I I was alone and powerless. There was not a single Englishman among the prisoners, whom I could trust. I languished in captivity for two years without any the slightest hope of escape. But in the third year I still managed to escape. It happened like this. My master constantly, once or twice a week, took ship's boat and went out to the seashore to fish. In every such On the trip he took me and one boy with him, whose name was Xuri. We rowed diligently and entertained their master as best they could. And since I besides, he turned out to be a good fisherman, he sometimes sent both of us - me and this Xuri - for fish under the supervision of one old Moor, his distant relative. One day my host invited two very important Moors to ride with him on his sailboat. For this trip he prepared large supplies food, which he sent to his boat in the evening. The boat was spacious. The owner, two years ago, ordered his ship's carpenter to arrange There is a small cabin in it, and in the cabin there is a pantry for provisions. In this pantry I and packed all the supplies. “Maybe the guests will want to hunt,” the owner told me. - Take three guns from the ship and take them to the boat. I did everything I was ordered: washed the deck, raised the The flag sat in the boat the next morning, waiting for guests. Suddenly the owner came alone and said that his guests would not go today, since they things were delayed. Then he ordered the three of us - me, the boy Xuri and the Moor - go in our boat to the seaside for fish. “My friends will come to dinner with me,” he said, “and because Once you catch enough fish, bring it here. It was then that the old dream of freedom awakened in me again. Now I had a ship, and as soon as the owner left, I began to prepare - but not for fishing, but to long-distance swimming. The truth is I didn't know where I would go your path, but every road is good - as long as you get out of captivity. “We should grab some food for ourselves,” I said. to the Moor. - We can’t eat without asking for the provisions that the owner prepared for the guests. The old man agreed with me and soon brought a large basket of crackers and three jugs of fresh water. I knew where the owner had a box of wine, and while the Moor went to fetch provisions, I transported all the bottles to the boat and put them in the pantry, as if they had been reserved for the owner even earlier. In addition, I brought a huge piece of wax (weighing fifty pounds) yes grabbed a skein of yarn, an axe, a saw and a hammer. All this is very important to us came in handy later, especially the wax from which we made candles. I came up with another trick, and again I managed to deceive simple-minded Moor. His name was Ishmael, so everyone called him Moli. So I told him: - Pray, there are the owner’s hunting rifles on the ship. It would be nice to get it a little gunpowder and a few charges - maybe we'll be lucky shoot some waders for dinner. The owner keeps gunpowder and shot on the ship, I know. “Okay,” he said, “I’ll bring it.” And he brought a large leather bag with gunpowder - weighing a pound and a half, and perhaps more, and another, with fractions, - five or six pounds. He He also captured the bullets. All this was stored in the boat. Besides, in in the master's cabin there was some more gunpowder, which I poured into a large bottle, having first poured out the remaining wine from it. Having thus stocked up with everything necessary for a long voyage, we They left the harbor as if to go fishing. I put my fishing rods in the water, but didn’t catch anything (I purposely didn’t pull out my fishing rods when the fish caught on hook). - We won't catch anything here! - I said to the Moor. - The owner will not praise us if we return to him empty-handed. We need to move further away sea. Perhaps the fish will bite better away from the shore. Without suspecting deception, the old Moor agreed with me and, since he stood on the bow, raised the sail. I was sitting at the wheel, at the stern, and when the ship had moved about three miles away open sea, I went adrift - as if in order to start again fishing. Then, handing the steering wheel to the boy, I stepped onto the bow and walked up to the Moor from behind, suddenly lifted him and threw him into the sea. He's right now surfaced because he was floating like a cork, and began shouting at me to take him into the boat, promising that he would go with me to the ends of the world. He's so fast sailed after the ship, which would have caught up with me very soon (the wind was weak, and the boat barely moved). Seeing that the Moor would soon overtake us, I ran to the cabin and took there was one of the hunting rifles, took aim at the Moor and said: - I don’t wish you harm, but leave me alone now and quickly Come back home! You are a good swimmer, the sea is calm, you can easily swim to shores. Turn back and I won't touch you. But if you don't leave me alone boats, I'll shoot you in the head, because I'm determined to get myself freedom. He turned towards the shore and, I am sure, swam to it without difficulty. Of course, I could take this Moor with me, but it was impossible to attack the old man rely. When the Moor fell behind the boat, I turned to the boy and said: - Xuri, if you are faithful to me, I will do you a lot of good. Swear that you will never cheat on me, otherwise I will throw you into the sea too. The boy smiled, looking me straight in the eyes, and swore that he would give me faithful to the grave and will go with me wherever I want. He said this sincerely that I could not help but believe him. Until the Moor approached the shore, I headed for the open sea, tacking against the wind so that everyone would think we were heading towards Gibraltar. But as soon as it began to get dark, I began to steer south, holding slightly to the east, because I did not want to move away from the coast. Dul a very fresh wind, but the sea was flat and calm, and so we walked good move. When the next day at three o'clock ahead it appeared for the first time land, we found ourselves already one and a half hundred miles south of Saleh, far beyond borders of the possessions of the Moroccan Sultan, and any other of African kings. The shore we were approaching was completely deserted. But in captivity I gained such fear and was so afraid of falling back to the Moors into captivity, that, taking advantage of the favorable wind that drove my the boat to the south, sailed back and forth for five days without anchoring and without going ashore. Five days later the wind changed: it blew from the south, and since I no longer was afraid of being chased, he decided to approach the shore and dropped anchor at the mouth of some small river. I can’t say what kind of river this is, where it flows and what kind of people live on its banks. Its shores were deserted, and this made me very I was glad because I had no desire to see people. The only thing I needed was fresh water. We entered the mouth in the evening and decided when it got dark to get to swim sushi and explore all the surroundings. But as soon as it got dark, we heard terrible sounds from the shore: the shore was swarming with animals that were so furiously howled, growled, roared and barked that poor Xuri almost died of fear and began to beg me not to go ashore until the morning. “Okay, Xuri,” I told him, “let’s wait!” But maybe when in daylight we will see people from whom it will probably be even worse for us, than from fierce tigers and lions. “And we’ll shoot these people with a gun,” he said with a laugh, “they and run away! I was pleased that the boy was behaving well. That they He didn’t lose heart in the future, I gave him a sip of wine. I followed his advice, and we stayed at anchor all night without leaving from the boat and holding guns ready. We didn't have to close a wink until the morning eye. About two or three hours after we dropped anchor, we heard the terrible roar of some huge animals of a very strange breed (which we and didn’t know themselves). The animals approached the shore, entered the river, splash and wallow in it, obviously wanting to freshen up, and at the same time they screamed, roared and howled; I have never heard such disgusting sounds before I haven't heard. Xuri trembled with fear; To tell the truth, I was scared too. But we were both even more frightened when we heard that one of the monsters sails towards our ship. We couldn't see it, but we only heard it puffs and snorts, and from these sounds alone they guessed that the monster was huge and fiercely. “It must be a lion,” said Xuri. - Let's raise the anchor and leave from here! “No, Xuri,” I objected, “we have no need to weigh anchor.” We Let's just let go of the rope longer and move further out into the sea - the animals won't will chase us. But as soon as I uttered these words, I saw an unknown beast on distance of two oars from our ship. I'm a little confused, but now he took a gun from the cabin and fired. The beast turned back and swam towards shore. It is impossible to describe what a furious roar arose on the shore when my shot rang out: the animals here must have never before heard this sound. Here I was finally convinced that at night You can't go ashore. But will it be possible to risk landing during the day - We didn’t know that either. Becoming a victim of some savage is no better than fall into the claws of a lion or tiger. But at any cost we had to go ashore here or at somewhere else, since we didn’t have a drop of water left. We've been around for a long time I was thirsty. Finally the long-awaited morning arrived. Xuri stated that if I'll let him go, he'll wade to the shore and try to get some fresh water. water. And when I asked him why he should go and not me, he answered: - If a wild man comes, he will eat me, and you will remain alive. This answer expressed such love for me that I was deeply moved. “That’s it, Xuri,” I said, “we’ll both go.” And if a wild one appears man, we will shoot him, and he will not eat you or me. I gave the boy some crackers and a sip of wine; then we pulled closer to land and, jumping into the water, waded towards the shore, without taking with them nothing but guns and two empty water jugs. I did not want to move away from the shore so as not to lose sight of our ship. I was afraid that savages might come down the river to us in their pirogues. But Ksuri, noticing a hollow a mile from the shore, rushed with a jug there. Suddenly I see him running back. "Weren't the savages chasing him? - in I thought in fear. “Was he afraid of some predatory animal?” I rushed to his rescue and, running closer, I saw that behind him he has something big hanging. It turned out that he killed some kind of animal, like our hare, only his fur was a different color and his legs were longer. We both were happy about this game, but I was even more happy when Xuri said me that he found a lot of good fresh water in the hollow. Having filled the jugs, we had a sumptuous breakfast of the killed animal and set off on their further journey. So we did not find any human traces. After we left the mouth of the river, I several more times During our further voyage we had to moor to the shore behind fresh water. One early morning we dropped anchor off some high cape. Already The tide has begun. Suddenly Xuri, whose eyes were apparently sharper than mine, whispered: - Let's move away from this shore. Look what a monster lies over there on the hill! It sleeps soundly, but woe will be ours when it will wake up! I looked in the direction where Xuri was pointing, and indeed I saw a terrible beast. It was a huge lion. He lay under the ledge of the mountain. “Listen, Xuri,” I said, “go to the shore and kill this lion.” The boy was scared. - I should kill him! - he exclaimed. - Why, the lion will swallow me like fly! I asked him not to move and, without saying another word to him, I brought All our guns were from the cabin (there were three of them). One, the largest and most cumbersome, I loaded it with two pieces of lead, having first poured a good charge into the barrel gunpowder; he rolled two large bullets into another, and five smaller bullets into the third. Taking the first gun and taking careful aim, I shot at the beast. I aimed at his head, but he lay in this position (covering his head with his paw on eye level) that the charge hit the paw and crushed the bone. Lez growled and jumped up, but, feeling pain, fell, then stood up on three legs and hobbled away from the shore, emitting such a desperate roar as I have ever never heard of it. I was a little embarrassed that I missed his head; however, without delay not a minute, took the second gun and shot after the beast. This time it's mine the charge hit the target. The lion fell, making barely audible hoarse sounds. When Xuri saw the wounded beast, all his fears passed, and he became ask me to let him go ashore. - Okay, go! - I said. The boy jumped into the water and swam to the shore, working with one hand, because that in the other he had a gun. Coming close to the fallen beast, he put the muzzle of a gun to his ear and killed him on the spot. It was, of course, nice to shoot a lion while hunting, but its meat was not was good for food, and I was very sorry that we spent three charges on such worthless game. However, Xuri said that he would try to profit something from the killed lion, and when we returned to the boat, he asked me axe. - For what? - I asked. “Cut off his head,” he answered. However, he could not cut off the head, he did not have enough strength: he cut off only a paw, which he brought into our boat. The paw was extraordinary sizes. Then it occurred to me that the skin of this lion could perhaps come in handy, and I decided to try skinning it. We are again went ashore, but I did not know how to take on this work. Xuri turned out to be more dexterous than me. We worked all day. The skin was removed only in the evening. We we stretched it out on the roof of our small cabin. Two days later she was completely dried in the sun and then served as my bed. Having set sail from this shore, we sailed straight south and for days ten or twelve in a row did not change their direction. Our provisions were running out, so we tried our best It is more economical to use our reserves. We only went ashore for fresh food. water. I wanted to get to the mouth of the Gambia or Senegal, that is, to those places that are adjacent to Cape Verde, as I hoped to meet here some European ship. I knew that if I didn't meet the ship at these places, will I stay or go to the open sea in search of islands, or die among the blacks - I had no other choice. I also knew that all the ships that go from Europe, wherever they go headed - to the shores of Guinea, to Brazil or to the East Indies - pass past Cape Verde, and therefore it seemed to me that all my happiness depended only depends on whether I meet some European vessel. “If I don’t meet you,” I told myself, “I face certain death.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Meeting with the savages Another ten days passed. We continued to move steadily south. At first the coast was deserted; then in two or three places we saw naked black people who stood on the shore and looked at us. I once thought of going ashore and talking with them, but Xuri, my wise advisor said: - Do not go! Do not go! No need! And yet I began to stay closer to the shore in order to be able start a conversation with these people. The savages obviously understood what I wanted, and They ran after us along the shore for a long time. I noticed that they were unarmed, only one of them had a hand a long thin stick. Xuri told me that it was a spear and that the savages throw their spears are very far and surprisingly accurate. So I held on some distance from them and spoke to them using signs, trying to let them know that we are hungry and need food. They understood and they, in turn, began to make signs for me to stop my boat, since they intend to bring us food. I lowered the sail and the boat stopped. Two savages ran somewhere and half an hour later they brought two large pieces of dried meat and two bags of grain of some kind of cereal growing in those places. We did not know, what kind of meat and grain it was, but they expressed full readiness accept both. But how to receive the offered gift? We could not go ashore: we They were afraid of the savages, and they were afraid of us. And so, in order for both sides felt safe, the savages stored all their provisions on the shore, and they moved away themselves. Only after we transported her to the boat did they returned to their original place. The kindness of the savages touched us, we thanked them with signs, since no gifts could be offered to them in return. However, at that very moment we had a wonderful opportunity to help them great service. Before we had time to set sail from the shore, we suddenly saw that from behind the mountains two strong and terrible animals run out. They rushed as fast as they could straight towards to the sea. It seemed to us that one of them was chasing the other. Exes on the shore people, especially women, were terribly afraid. The turmoil began, many they screamed and cried. Only the savage who had the spear remained on place, everyone else started running in all directions. But the animals rushed straight towards sea ​​and none of the blacks were touched. Only then did I see what they are like huge. They ran into the water and began diving and swimming, that one might perhaps think that they had come running here only for sea swimming. Suddenly one of them swam quite close to our boat. I don't expected, but nevertheless was not taken by surprise: he quickly loaded the gun I prepared to meet the enemy. As soon as he approached us within the range of a rifle shot, I pulled the trigger and shot him in the head. IN at that very moment he plunged into the water, then emerged and swam back to the shore, then disappearing into the water, then reappearing on the surface. He struggled with death, choking on water and bleeding. Before reaching the shore, he died and went to the bottom. No words can convey how stunned the savages were when heard the roar and saw the fire of my shot: others almost died fear and fell to the ground as if dead. But, seeing that the beast was killed and that I was making signs for them to come closer to shore, they grew bolder and crowded near the water: apparently, they really wanted find a dead animal underwater. There was water in the place where he drowned stained with blood, and therefore I found it easily. Hooking him with a rope, I He threw its end to the savages and they pulled the killed animal to the shore. It was a large leopard with an unusually beautiful spotted skin. Savages standing above him, they raised their hands up in amazement and joy; they couldn't understand with which I killed him. Another animal, frightened by my shot, swam to the shore and rushed back to the mountains. I noticed that the savages really want to feast on the meat of the dead leopard, and it occurred to me that it would be good if they got it from me as a gift. I showed them with signs that they could take the beast for themselves. They thanked me warmly and immediately got to work. They did not have knives, but, using a sharp sliver of wood, they removed the skin from dead beast so quickly and deftly that we could not have removed it with a knife. They offered me meat, but I refused, making a sign that I was giving it them. I asked them for the skin, which they gave me very willingly. Except Moreover, they brought me a new supply of provisions, and I gladly accepted them gift. Then I asked them for water: I took one of our jugs and turned it upside down to show that it was empty and that I was asking for it fill. Then they shouted something. A little later two women appeared and they brought a large vessel made of baked clay (the savages must have fired clay in the sun). The women placed this vessel on the shore, and they themselves They left as before. I sent Xuri ashore with all three jugs, and he filled them to the top. Having thus received water, meat and grains, I parted with friendly savages and for eleven days continued his journey to in the same direction, without turning towards the shore. Every night during the calm we made a fire and lit it in the lantern a homemade candle, hoping that some ship would notice our tiny flame, but not a single ship met us along the way. Finally, about fifteen miles in front of me, I saw a strip of land, far performing at sea. The weather was calm, and I turned into the open sea, to go around this braid. The moment we caught up with her tip, I clearly saw about six miles from the coast on the ocean side another land and concluded quite correctly that the narrow spit is Cape Verde, and that land that looms in the distance is one of the Cape Verde islands. But the islands were very far away, and I did not dare to go to them. Suddenly I heard a boy scream: - Mister! Mister! Ship and sail! The naive Xuri was so frightened that he almost lost his mind: he imagined that it was one of his master's ships, sent for us to I'll give chase. But I knew how far we had gone from the Moors, and I was sure that they would help us no longer scary. I jumped out of the cabin and immediately saw the ship. I even managed to see that this ship is Portuguese. "He must be heading to the shores of Guinea,” I thought. But, looking more closely, I was convinced that the ship is heading in a different direction and has no intention of turning towards shore. Then I raised all the sails and rushed into the open sea, deciding to enter into negotiations with the ship at any cost. It soon became clear to me that even going at full speed, I would not have time to approach close enough for the ship to detect my signals. But just at that moment, when I was already beginning to despair, they saw us from the deck - must be through a telescope. As I found out later, the ship decided that This is a boat from some sunken European ship. The ship lay down in drift to give me the opportunity to get closer, and I moored to him an hour in three. They asked me who I was, first in Portuguese, then in Spanish, then in French, but I didn’t know any of these languages. Finally one sailor, a Scotsman, spoke to me in English, and I I told him that I was an Englishman who had escaped from captivity. Then me and mine the companion was very kindly invited onto the ship. Soon we found ourselves on deck together with our boat. It is impossible to express in words how delighted I felt when I felt free. I was saved both from slavery and from the threat that threatened me of death! My happiness was limitless. To celebrate, I offered everything property that was with me, to my savior, captain, as a reward for my deliverance. But the captain refused. “I won’t take anything from you,” he said. - All your things will be returned to you intact as soon as we arrive in Brazil. I saved you life, because I am well aware that I myself could find myself in the same trouble. And how happy I would be then if you provided me with the same help! Not forget also that we are going to Brazil, and Brazil is far from England, and there you may starve without these things. That's not why I saved you, and then destroy it! No, no, sir, I’ll take you to Brazil for nothing, but things will give you the opportunity to provide yourself with food and pay for travel homeland.

When an almost sixty-year-old famous journalist and publicist Daniel Defoe(1660-1731) wrote in 1719 "Robinson Crusoe", he least of all thought that an innovative work was coming out of his pen, the first novel in the literature of the Enlightenment. He did not imagine that descendants would prefer this text out of the 375 works already published under his signature and earning him the honorary name of “the father of English journalism.” Literary historians believe that in fact he wrote much more, but it is not easy to identify his works, published under different pseudonyms, in the wide flow of the English press at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. At the time of writing the novel, Defoe had a huge life experience behind him: he came from the lower class, in his youth he was a participant in the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth, escaped execution, traveled around Europe and spoke six languages, knew the smiles and betrayals of Fortune. His values ​​- wealth, prosperity, man's personal responsibility before God and himself - are typically Puritan, bourgeois values, and Defoe's biography is a colorful, eventful biography of a bourgeois from the era of primitive accumulation. All his life he started various enterprises and said about himself: “Thirteen times I became rich and poor again.” Political and literary activity led him to civil execution in the pillory. For one of the magazines, Defoe wrote a fake autobiography of Robinson Crusoe, the authenticity of which his readers were supposed to believe (and did).

The plot of the novel is based on a true story told by Captain Woods Rogers in an account of his voyage that Defoe may have read in the press. Captain Rogers told how his sailors rescued a man from an uninhabited island in the Atlantic Ocean who had spent four years and five months there alone. Alexander Selkirk, a mate on an English ship with a violent temper, quarreled with his captain and was landed on the island with a gun, gunpowder, a supply of tobacco and a Bible. When Rogers' sailors found him, he was dressed in goatskins and "looked wilder than the horned original wearers of that apparel." He forgot how to speak, on the way to England he hid crackers in secluded places on the ship, and it took time for him to return to a civilized state.

Unlike the real prototype, Defoe's Crusoe did not lose his humanity during his twenty-eight years on a desert island. The narrative of Robinson's deeds and days is permeated with enthusiasm and optimism, the book radiates an unfading charm. Today, Robinson Crusoe is read primarily by children and teenagers as an exciting adventure story, but the novel poses problems that should be discussed in terms of cultural history and literature.

The main character of the novel, Robinson, an exemplary English entrepreneur who embodies the ideology of the emerging bourgeoisie, grows in the novel to a monumental image of the creative, constructive abilities of man, and at the same time his portrait is historically completely specific.

Robinson, the son of a merchant from York, dreams of the sea from a young age. On the one hand, there is nothing exceptional in this - England at that time was the leading maritime power in the world, English sailors sailed all the oceans, the sailor profession was the most common and was considered honorable. On the other hand, it is not the romance of sea travel that draws Robinson to the sea; he does not even try to join the ship as a sailor and study maritime affairs, but in all his voyages he prefers the role of a passenger paying fare; Robinson trusts the traveler's unfaithful fate for a more prosaic reason: he is attracted by "a rash idea to make a fortune for himself by scouring the world." In fact, outside of Europe it was easy to get rich quickly with some luck, and Robinson runs away from home, neglecting his father's admonitions. Robinson's father's speech at the beginning of the novel is a hymn to bourgeois virtues, the “middle state”:

Those who leave their homeland in pursuit of adventure, he said, are either those who have nothing to lose, or ambitious people eager to occupy a higher position; by embarking on enterprises that go beyond the framework of everyday life, they strive to improve matters and cover their name with glory; but such things are either beyond my power or humiliating for me; my place is the middle, that is, what can be called the highest level of modest existence, which, as he was convinced from many years of experience, is for us the best in the world, the most suitable for human happiness, freed from both need and deprivation, physical labor and suffering , falling to the lot of the lower classes, and from luxury, ambition, arrogance and envy of the upper classes. How pleasant such a life is, he said, I can judge by the fact that everyone placed in other conditions envy him: even kings often complain about the bitter fate of people born for great deeds, and regret that fate did not place them between two extremes - insignificance and greatness, and the sage speaks out in favor of the middle as the measure of true happiness, when he prays to heaven not to send him either poverty or wealth.

However, young Robinson does not heed the voice of prudence, goes to sea, and his first merchant enterprise - an expedition to Guinea - brings him three hundred pounds (characteristically, how accurately he always names sums of money in the story); this luck turns his head and completes his “death.” Therefore, Robinson views everything that happens to him in the future as a punishment for filial insubordination, for not listening to “the sober arguments of the best part of his being” - reason. And he ends up on an uninhabited island at the mouth of the Orinoco, succumbing to the temptation to “get rich sooner than circumstances allowed”: he undertakes to deliver slaves from Africa for Brazilian plantations, which will increase his fortune to three to four thousand pounds sterling. During this voyage, he ends up on a desert island after a shipwreck.

And here the central part of the novel begins, an unprecedented experiment begins, which the author carries out on his hero. Robinson is a small atom of the bourgeois world, who does not imagine himself outside this world and treats everything in the world as a means to achieve his goal, who has already traveled across three continents, purposefully walking his path to wealth.

He finds himself artificially torn out of society, placed in solitude, brought face to face with nature. In the “laboratory” conditions of a tropical uninhabited island, an experiment is being conducted on a person: how will a person torn from civilization behave, individually faced with the eternal, core problem of humanity - how to survive, how to interact with nature? And Crusoe follows the path of humanity as a whole: he begins to work, so that work becomes the main theme of the novel.

For the first time in the history of literature, an educational novel pays tribute to work. In the history of civilization, work was usually perceived as punishment, as evil: according to the Bible, God imposed the need to work on all the descendants of Adam and Eve as punishment for original sin. In Defoe, work appears not only as the real main content of human life, not only as a means of obtaining what is necessary. Puritan moralists were the first to talk about work as a worthy, great occupation, and in Defoe’s novel work is not poeticized. When Robinson ends up on a desert island, he doesn’t really know how to do anything, and only little by little, through failure, he learns to grow bread, weave baskets, make his own tools, clay pots, clothes, an umbrella, a boat, raise goats, etc. It has long been noted that Robinson is more difficult in those crafts with which his creator was well acquainted: for example, Defoe at one time owned a tile factory, so Robinson’s attempts to fashion and burn pots are described in great detail. Robinson himself is aware of the saving role of labor:

“Even when I realized the full horror of my situation - all the hopelessness of my loneliness, my complete isolation from people, without a glimmer of hope for deliverance - even then, as soon as the opportunity opened up to stay alive, not to die of hunger, all my grief seemed like a hand lifted: I calmed down, began to work to satisfy my immediate needs and to preserve my life, and if I lamented my fate, then least of all I saw in it heavenly punishment...”

However, in the conditions of the author’s experiment on human survival, there is one concession: Robinson quickly “opens up the opportunity not to die of hunger, to stay alive.” It cannot be said that all of its ties with civilization have been cut off. First, civilization operates in his skills, in his memory, in his life position; secondly, from a plot point of view, civilization sends its fruits to Robinson in a surprisingly timely manner. He would hardly have survived if he had not immediately evacuated from the wrecked ship all food supplies and tools (guns and gunpowder, knives, axes, nails and a screwdriver, a sharpener, a crowbar), ropes and sails, bed and clothes. However, civilization is represented on the Island of Despair only by its technical achievements, and social contradictions do not exist for the isolated, lonely hero. It is from loneliness that he suffers most, and the appearance of the savage Friday on the island is a relief.

As already mentioned, Robinson embodies the psychology of the bourgeois: it seems completely natural to him to appropriate for himself everything and everyone for which no European has the legal right of ownership. Robinson's favorite pronoun is “mine,” and he immediately makes Friday his servant: “I taught him to pronounce the word “master” and made him understand that this is my name.” Robinson does not ask himself whether he has the right to appropriate Friday for himself, to sell his friend in captivity, the boy Xuri, or to trade in slaves. Other people are of interest to Robinson insofar as they are partners or the subject of his transactions, trading operations, and Robinson does not expect any other attitude towards himself. In Defoe's novel, the world of people, depicted in the narrative of Robinson's life before his ill-fated expedition, is in a state of Brownian motion, and the stronger its contrast with the bright, transparent world of the uninhabited island.

So, Robinson Crusoe is a new image in the gallery of great individualists, and he differs from his Renaissance predecessors in the absence of extremes, in that he completely belongs to the real world. No one would call Crusoe a dreamer, like Don Quixote, or an intellectual, a philosopher, like Hamlet. His sphere is practical action, management, trade, that is, he does the same thing as the majority of humanity. His egoism is natural and natural, he is aimed at a typically bourgeois ideal - wealth. The secret of the charm of this image lies in the very exceptional conditions of the educational experiment that the author performed on him. For Defoe and his first readers, the interest of the novel lay precisely in the uniqueness of the hero’s situation, and a detailed description of his everyday life, his daily work was justified only by the thousand-mile distance from England.

Robinson's psychology is fully consistent with the simple and artless style of the novel. Its main property is credibility, complete persuasiveness. The illusion of authenticity of what is happening is achieved by Defoe by using so many small details that, it seems, no one would undertake to invent. Having taken an initially incredible situation, Defoe then develops it, strictly observing the boundaries of plausibility.

The success of "Robinson Crusoe" among the reader was such that four months later Defoe wrote "The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe", and in 1720 he published the third part of the novel - "Serious Reflections During Life and the Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe." Over the course of the 18th century, about fifty more “new Robinsons” saw the light of day in various literatures, in which Defoe’s idea gradually turned out to be completely inverted. In Defoe, the hero strives not to go wild, not to unify himself, to tear the savage out of “simplicity” and nature - his followers have new Robinsons, who, under the influence of the ideas of the late Enlightenment, live one life with nature and are happy with the break with an emphatically vicious society. This meaning was put into Defoe’s novel by the first passionate denouncer of the vices of civilization, Jean-Jacques Rousseau; for Defoe, separation from society was a return to the past of humanity; for Rousseau, it becomes an abstract example of the formation of man, an ideal of the future.