Daniel Defoe and the realistic novel

The middle and upper class people wanted to read about their real experiences so the novel became more and more a picture of real
life. Writers began to represent descriptions of time and setting, and they developed a new hero, the self-made man with his common
sense. The values were those of the bourgeois: money and improvement of ones social status. The first novelist to create this new
type of fiction was Daniel Defoe (1660-1731). He started to write political essays as a journalist for The Review, a Whig Journal, but
Queen Anne didnt like his critical attitude so she had him arrested. To regain his freedom he had to deny his ideas and became a
secret agent for the new government. He started to write successful novels at sixty: the first was Robinson Crusoe in 1719, then Moll
Flanders in 1722, and the last was Roxana (1724). Thanks to the money he earned with these works, his life became very
comfortable but until his death he was haunted by his old creditors.
Robinson Crusoe
It is Defoes most famous novel, based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, a seaman who in 1704 was put ashore on a desert
island in the Pacific Ocean and then rescued five years later, and on travel books that were so successful in his time. Robinson Crusoe
belongs to the middle class, but like heroes of travel literature, he is always in search for his own identity. The novel can be read as a
spiritual autobiography in which Robinson reads the Bible to find comfort and guidance; he keeps a diary to record his experiences in
order to see Gods will in them, and to prove that he deserves to be saved by Gods Providence because on the island he exploits and
dominates nature. Thanks to his qualities, because he is a rationalist and a pragmatist, he creates a primitive society that exalts the
English one of his time and its values of mobility, productiveness and individualism.

The Journal
Analysis
3. sottolineato sul libro col pennarello e la matita
4. Robinson himself is the narrator. The narrative technique is the narration in 1st person, that gave the author the advantage to gain
the sympathy of his public, because the readers put themselves in the heros shoes.
6.
1. In the second paragraph, October 1st, he is sad about the death of his comrades, but not just because he knew them, but also
because if they had been alive they could have helped him to save or at least to repair the ship. But then he decide to get on board to
provide himself with food and all he could need.
2. relief: October 1, from In the morningto one hand; grief: from so on the other hand..to things. Solution: from All these
days..to ship.
3. a. All these days entirely spent in many several voyages to get all I could out of the ship
b. I spent this day in covering and securing the goods which I had saved
c Towards night I fixed upon a proper place under a rock
d I worked very hard in carrying all my goods to my new habitation
e I went out into the island with my gun to see for some food and discover the country
Also it rains everyday on the island.
4. No, he doesnt because he has to be practical in order to survive.
5. Robinson is a man who doesnt complain too much about his misfortunes. Indeed he is very active in doing what it needs to be
done in order to survive. He doesnt spend time desperating himself but he works very hard to live on the island at the best he can.
7 libro