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鲁滨孙漂流记

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定价:¥11.70

  • 出版时间:1995年10月
  • 页数:352页
  • ISBN:7-100-01193-0
  • 主题词:鲁滨孙漂流
  • 人气:160

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 Daniel Defoe (1660—1731) was one of the most fascinating figures in the history of English literature, but most probably he himself had no idea that he would feature so largely in it. Born Daniel Foe, son of a dissenting tallowchandler, he led a varied existence, being by turns tradesman, journalist, political commentator, traveller, secret agent and finally novelist. There had been great upheavals in his fortunes. As he himself puts it:
    No man has tasted differing fortunes more,
    And thirteen times I have been rich and poor.
      —Preface to the 8th vol. of his Review
Yet ever energetic and resourceful, he was able to rise again and again, turning even the most disadvantageous situation to his advantage. When in 1702 he offended the government for writing a satirical pamphlet and was ordered to stand in the pillory, a punishment with the attendant danger of exposure to the stones and brickbats, not to mention jeers, of the street mobs of the time, he saved himself by promptly writing a "Hymn to the Pillory" and having it distributed beforehand, in which he said:
    But who can judge of Crimes by Punishment,
    When Parties rule, and Law's subservient.
    Justice with Change of Interest learns to bow;
    And what was Merit once, is Murder now.
This effectively won the sympathy of the crowds. So far from harassing him, they applauded him as an antigovernment hero.
 These vicissitudes gained for him a wide and diverse knowledge of life, an asset which served him well when he turned novelist later in life. Another asset was his vast experience as a journalist. He not only wrote voluminously on every possible subject, but in an easy, clear, vigorous style, good particularly at describing circumstantial detail and reporting street talk and the conversation of "lowly" people——just the kind of prose needed by the new, popular literary form, the novel. He can be flat and tedious, but is never lacking in imagination. In fact, inventiveness was another forte of his, so much so that his descriptions of the appalling scenes in London during the plague year of 1664-5, based on other people's writings, were for a long time taken to be eye-witness accounts. What finally lifted his writings out of the ordinary,however,was his Nonconformist conscience.The morality may have been shallow, but the conviction was deep, and it was a tradesman's conviction that the backbone of society was the merchant class. He never tired of lauding the virtues of those situated in "the middle station of life" and his slogan, battle cry even, was "Liberty and Property!"
 All these attributes he turned to good account when he came to write, at the age of fifty-nine, a succession of great novels, such as Robbinson Crusoe,Moll Flanders,Roxana,to mention only three of the most pupular.
 Robinson Crusoe (1719) is the favourite of children and adults alike,not only in the English-speaking countries,but all over the world. It is an adventure story,based on the true experience of one Alexander Selkirk,who was marooned on an island for five years (1704-9). Adventure stories arouse one's interest,but when they get too long, the interest falls,especially if the action is confined to a small place,like an island. Yet that is not the case with Robinson Crusoe. What is it then that sustains our interest throughout?
 One factor is obviously that Defoe knows how to tell a story. And,what a story! Here we see man grappling with the central problem in life,that of survival. There is a shipwreck and Robinson Crusoe is the only survivor. Alone,faced with an indifferent,often hostile,Nature, he has to supply all his basic needs,such as food,clothing,shelter and means of getting about,all by his own hands or wits. We see how after the initial shock and dismay,he takes a grip on himself and sets about saving from the wreck whatever he can find that is yet unspoiled by water and useful to him. He swims back to the part of the ship still afloat,gets the things he needs and,with infinite ingenuity,ties together pieces of wood and planks to make a raft and carefully guides it to land with his first cargo. Twelve trips he makes in all,each an ordeal,but in the end he succeeds in moving ashore necessities such as bread,rice,flour,dried meat,cheese,rum,clothes,firearms and gunpowder,carpenter's tools and nails,and "that most useful thing",a grindstone.
 With these Crusoe begins life anew. Not content with bare existence,he starts to make himself more comfortable. Having fortified his tent and cave,he makes a table and a chair. Now he can eat and write with some ease,in his Englishman's castle. He even manages to make an earthen pot,for boiling meat in. This last feat calls forth one of his characteristic reflections:
     No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever
    equal to mine, when I found I had made an earthen
    pot that would bear the fire; and I had hardly patience
    to stay till they were cold, before I set one upon
    the fire again, with some water in it, to boil me some
    meat, which it did admirably well; and with a piece of
    a kid I made some very good broth, though I wanted
    oatmeal and several other ingredients requisite
    to make it so good as I would have had it been.
Pride in his own ability is evident. All people in the same situation will have the same sense of triumph, but perhaps only a Defoe can write with such mastery of detail and such practical wisdom. That last remark about "oatmeal and several other ingredients" not only adds to the verisimilitude of the account, but shows what an old hand Defoe was at cooking also and how for him as for his Crusoe life must go on improving.
 That is the enterprising spirit. The erstwhile tradesman, despite his repeated business failures, has never let go in his fight for a better material existence. Gold has a strange fascination for his characters. We see how on one of his trips to the wreck Crusoe discovers and counts the coins left on board. Even though he knows and indeed laments that money has no use for him temporarily,he nevertheless takes the coins,having a shrewd eye on their use in future.
 The novel is loosely constructed,episodic,yet manages to lead us on,because Crusoe is forever looking forward to his rescue. We wait with him. There is always a future looming ahead. One aspect of the future is the coming of Man Friday. This complicates life on the island. Human or rather economic relationship functions again. There is a society,indeed,a colony,with a masterslave structure. Friday provides labour,which Crusoe exploits. Crusoe exercises absolute control over Friday's person,including the right to name him,and the name Friday is really a numeral,not far short of the numbers given in later ages to the inmates of a prison or concentration camp. Defoe wasn't exactly anticipating,though,for he wrote the novel at a time when his fellow merchants were already busy following the flag to the ends of the earth and designating large areas of Africa and Asia by new, more English-sounding names.
 There is thus a lot to explore underneath the surface in Robinson Crusoe. But whether we have here a myth or an archetypal situation, the book remains a gripping tale to read. That again shows the great merit of Defoe's style. Its importance goes far beyond the handling of words, though Defoe the supposedly plain writer is actually full of cunning. Something far more crucial, with grave consequences for the future, was at stake, namely, whether the modern novel could emerge. It was lucky that it was an enterprising tradesman-journalist who set it up, and not a refined man of letters. Refined gentlemen had tried their hand not so long ago.
 Wrecks like Arcadia and Euphues, with their insipid characterization and thin,monotonous plots,made even more tiresome by their artificial style,reminded people of what not to do in writing fiction. Shoving aside the old rhetoric and the fine writing,Defoe broke out with a new prose fully in line with the new realism. These two formed an organic whole. The new realism required the new prose; without the new prose,there wouldn't be realism. This development had been eagerly awaited by the reading public,now much enlarged by middle-class newcomers. At this critical moment in literary and cultural history,Defor arrived with his intimate knowledge of new-type characters,who were changing the world,and his prodigious writing ability. He came in the nick of time,the first of the moderns.   
       
                    Wang Zuoliang (王佐良)

显示全部目 录

Introduction


A Warning

The Storm

Pirates

Escape from Slavery

Brazil

Shipwreck

Sole Survivor

First Days

The Journal: Food and Shelter

The Journal: Natural Disasters

The Journal: Illness

The Journal: Recovery

The Journal: Exploring the Island

The Journal: Of Pots and Canoes

The Journal: Reflections

No Escape

Further Improvements

A Footprint

Bones

Fear and Isolation

The Lost Ship

Encounter with Savages

Friday Observed

Friday Instructed

New Plans

Savages Return

Prisoners Freed

The Mutineers

Ship Recaptured

Return to England

Adventures with Friday

Island Again