Category: Literature

“Robinson Crusoe” écrit en six mois ou moins par Daniel Defoe, a été publié pour la première fois en avril 1719 et a marqué le début de la fiction réaliste en tant que genre littéraire. À la fin du XIXe siècle, ce livre avait plus d’éditions, de dérivés et de traductions que tout autre livre de la littérature occidentale.

« Robinson Crusoé » fait désormais partie de notre collection de livres bilingues français/anglais

Le livre s’est avéré si populaire que pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les personnes qui ont décidé de rester et de se cacher dans les ruines de la ville de Varsovie occupée par les Allemands en 1945 ont été, après leur sauvetage par l’Armée rouge, appelées les Robinson Crusoes de Varsovie.

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“Robinson Crusoe” a été inspiré par des histoires de naufragés de la vie réelle. On pense que la source d’inspiration la plus probable est le marin écossais Alexander Selkirk, qui a passé quatre ans sur l’île inhabitée de Más a Tierra dans les îles Juan Fernández au large de la côte chilienne, laquelle a été rebaptisée île Robinson Crusoé en 1966. Autres sources possibles pour le récit comprennent “Hayy ibn Yaqdhan” d’Ibn Tufail, un roman philosophique du XIIe siècle qui se déroule sur une île déserte, et le marin espagnol du XVIe siècle Pedro Serrano qui a été abandonné pendant sept ou huit ans sur une petite île déserte après avoir fait naufrage dans le années 1520. 

Il y a deux thèmes principaux. Le premier est la lutte contre la nature et la création ou la réplication de la société. Cela se fait par l’utilisation de l’agriculture et Crusoe crée même une hiérarchie politique rudimentaire. Il y a aussi un thème religieux qui raconte comment Robinson se rapproche de Dieu. Il n’écoute pas les sermons dans une église mais passe plutôt du temps seul dans la nature avec seulement une Bible à lire. À cela s’ajoute sa description de la relation maître-serviteur idéalisée entre lui et Friday, qui peut également être vue en termes d’assimilation culturelle. Crusoe représente l’Européen “éclairée” et Friday est le “sauvage”. Pour Crusoe, Friday ne peut être racheté de ses mœurs culturelles que par l’assimilation de la culture européenne, mais Defoe utilise également Friday pour critiquer la colonisation espagnole des Amériques.

 “Robinson Crusoe” a de nombreuses bandes dessinées, scènes, films et adaptations animées. La première bande dessinée a été réalisée par Classics Illustrated en 1943. La première adaptation scénique a été jouée en 1796 au théâtre Royal de Londres. En 1927, un film dramatique britannique muet produit par MA Wetherell est sorti. Le premier film d’animation est sorti en 1988 et la première adaptation télévisée était un film français réalisé en 1964 et mettant en vedette Robert Hoffmann.

Aperçu

 “Robinson Crusoe” est présenté comme une autobiographie du personnage principal qui est un naufragé, lequel passe 28 ans sur une île déserte tropicale isolée. Defoe détaille la lutte d’un individu pour survivre dans un environnement fondamentalement hostile. Dans le cadre de son existence quotidienne, Robinson Crusoé fait face à de nombreuses difficultés, notamment la famine, la maladie et même le danger des cannibales, mais il récupère ce qu’il peut du naufrage et se fournit un abri ainsi que des meubles et des outils rudimentaires. Robinson ne rumine jamais au sujet de son isolement, préférant occuper son temps de manière productive et réussir dans un environnement peu prometteur. Il est un exemple du triomphe de l’esprit humain.

Début du livre

Chapitre I

En 1632, je naquis à York, d’une bonne famille, mais qui n’était point de ce pays. Mon père, originaire de Brême, établi premièrement à Hull, après avoir acquis l’aisance et s’être retiré du commerce, était venu résider à York où il s’était allié, par ma mère, à la famille Robinson, une des meilleures de la province. C’est à cette alliance que je devais mon double nom de Robinson-Kreutznaer; mais, aujourd’hui, par une corruption de mots assez commune en Angleterre, on nous nomme, nous nous nommons et signons Crusoé. C’est ainsi que mes compagnons m’ont toujours appelé.

J’avais deux frères: l’aîné, lieutenant-colonel, en Flandre, d’un régiment d’infanterie anglaise, autrefois commandé par le fameux colonel Lockhart, fut tué à la bataille de Dunkerque contre les Espagnols; que devint l’autre? j’ignore quelle fut sa destinée; mon père et ma mère ne connurent pas mieux la mienne.

Troisième fils de la famille, et n’ayant appris aucun métier, ma tête commença de bonne heure à se remplir de pensées vagabondes. Mon père, qui était un bon vieillard, m’avait donné toute la somme de savoir qu’en général on peut acquérir par l’éducation domestique et dans une école gratuite. Il voulait me faire avocat; mais mon seul désir était d’aller sur mer, et cette inclination m’entraînait si résolument contre sa volonté et ses ordres, et malgré même toutes les prières et les sollicitations de ma mère et de mes parents, qu’il semblait qu’il y eût une fatalité dans cette propension naturelle vers un avenir de misère.

Mon père, homme grave et sage, me donnait de sérieux et d’excellents conseils contre ce qu’il prévoyait être mon dessein. Un matin, il m’appela dans sa chambre, où il était retenu par la goutte, et me réprimanda chaleureusement à ce sujet:—«Quelle autre raison as-tu, me dit-il, qu’un penchant aventureux, pour abandonner la maison paternelle et ta patrie, où tu pourrais être poussé, et où tu as l’assurance de faire ta fortune avec de l’application et de l’industrie, et l’assurance d’une vie d’aisance et de plaisir? Il n’y a que les hommes dans l’adversité ou les ambitieux qui s’en vont chercher aventure dans les pays étrangers, pour s’élever par entreprise et se rendre fameux par des actes en dehors de la voie commune. Ces choses sont de beaucoup trop au-dessus ou trop au-dessous de toi; ton état est le médiocre, ou ce qui peut être appelé la première condition du bas étage; une longue expérience me l’a fait reconnaître comme le meilleur dans le monde et le plus convenable au bonheur. Il n’est en proie ni aux misères, ni aux peines, ni aux travaux, ni aux souffrances des artisans: il n’est point troublé par l’orgueil, le luxe, l’ambition et l’envie des hautes classes. Tu peux juger du bonheur de cet état; c’est celui de la vie que les autres hommes jalousent; les rois, souvent, ont gémi des cruelles conséquences d’être nés pour les grandeurs, et ont souhaité d’être placés entre les deux extrêmes, entre les grands et les petits; enfin le sage l’a proclamé le juste point de la vraie félicité en implorant le ciel de le préserver de la pauvreté et de la richesse.

«Remarque bien ceci, et tu le vérifieras toujours: les calamités de la vie sont le partage de la plus haute et de la plus basse classe du genre humain; la condition moyenne éprouve le moins de désastres, et n’est point exposée à autant de vicissitudes que le haut et le bas de la société; elle est même sujette à moins de maladies et de troubles de corps et d’esprit que les deux autres, qui, par leurs débauches, leurs vices et leurs excès, ou par un trop rude travail, le manque du nécessaire, une insuffisante nourriture et la faim, attirent sur eux des misères et des maux, naturelle conséquence de leur manière de vivre. La condition moyenne s’accommode le mieux de toutes les vertus et de toutes les jouissances: la paix et l’abondance sont les compagnes d’une fortune médiocre. La tempérance, la modération, la tranquillité, la santé, la société, tous les agréables divertissements et tous les plaisirs désirables sont les bénédictions réservées à ce rang. Par cette voie, les hommes quittent le monde d’une façon douce, et passent doucement et uniment à travers, sans être accablés de travaux des mains ou de l’esprit; sans être vendus à la vie de servitude pour le pain de chaque jour; sans être harassés par des perplexités continuelles qui troublent la paix de l’âme et arrachent le corps au repos; sans être dévorés par les angoisses de l’envie ou la secrète et rongeante convoitise de l’ambition; au sein d’heureuses circonstances, ils glissent tout mollement à travers la société, et goûtent sensiblement les douceurs de la vie sans les amertumes, ayant le sentiment de leur bonheur et apprenant, par l’expérience journalière, à le connaître plus profondément.»

Ensuite il me pria instamment, et de la manière la plus affectueuse, de ne pas faire le jeune homme:—«Ne va pas te précipiter, me disait-il, au milieu des maux contre lesquels la nature et ta naissance semblent t’avoir prémuni; tu n’es pas dans la nécessité d’aller chercher ton pain; je te veux du bien, je ferai tous mes efforts pour te placer parfaitement dans la position de la vie qu’en ce moment je te recommande. Si tu n’étais pas aise et heureux dans le monde, ce serait par ta destinée ou tout à fait par l’erreur qu’il te faut éviter; je n’en serais en rien responsable, ayant ainsi satisfait à mes devoirs en t’éclairant sur des projets que je sais être ta ruine. En un mot, j’accomplirais franchement mes bonnes promesses si tu voulais te fixer ici suivant mon souhait, mais je ne voudrais pas tremper dans tes infortunes en favorisant ton éloignement. N’as-tu pas l’exemple de ton frère aîné, auprès de qui j’usai autrefois des mêmes instances pour le dissuader d’aller à la guerre des Pays-Bas, instances qui ne purent l’emporter sur ses jeunes désirs le poussant à se jeter dans l’armée, où il trouva la mort? Je ne cesserai jamais de prier pour toi, toutefois j’oserais te prédire, si tu faisais ce coup de tête, que Dieu ne te bénirait point, et, que, dans l’avenir, manquant de toute assistance, tu aurais toute la latitude de réfléchir sur le mépris de mes conseils.»

Je remarquai, vers la dernière partie de ce discours, qui était véritablement prophétique, quoique je ne suppose pas que mon père en ait eu le sentiment; je remarquai, dis-je, que des larmes coulaient abondamment sur sa face, surtout lorsqu’il me parla de la perte de mon frère, et qu’il était si ému, en me prédisant que j’aurais tout le loisir de me repentir, sans avoir personne pour m’assister, qu’il s’arrêta court, puis ajouta:—«J’ai le cœur trop plein, je ne saurais t’en dire davantage.»

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• Site Progress Week of June 8, 2023
• Histoire du Théâtre Alexandrinski
• Progrès du Site semaine du 1 juin 2023
• Site Progress Week of June 1st, 2023
• Poème « Clair de Lune » de Paul Verlaine en anglais et français avec le tableau «Nuit au clair de lune en Crimée»
• Poem “Clair de Lune” by Paul Verlaine in English and French with the painting “Moonlit Night in Crimea”

“Robinson Crusoe” written in six months or less by Daniel Defoe, was first published on April 1719 and marked the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre. By the end of the 19th century this book had more editions, spin-off and translations than any other book of western literature.

“Robinson Crusoe” is now part of our French/English bilingual book collection

The book proved to be so popular that during World War II, people who decided to stay and hide in the ruins of the German-occupied city of Warsaw in 1945 were, after after their rescue by the Red Army, called the Robinson Crusoes of Warsaw.

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“Robinson Crusoe” was inspired by stories of real-life castaways. The most probable source of inspiration is thought to be Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, who spent four years on the uninhabited island of Más a Tierra in the Juan Fernández Islands off the Chilean coast which one, was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966. Other possible sources for the narrative include Ibn Tufail’s “Hayy ibn Yaqdhan” a twelfth-century philosophical novel which is set on a desert island, and Spanish sixteenth-century sailor Pedro Serrano who was marooned for seven or eight years on a small desert island after shipwrecking in the 1520s. 

There are two main themes. The first is the fight against nature and the creation or replication of society. This is done through the use agriculture and Crusoe even creates a rudimentary political hierarchy. There is also a religious theme which tells the story of how Robinson becomes closer to God. He doesn’t listen to sermons in a church but instead he spends time alone amongst nature with only a Bible to read. Added to that is his depiction of the idealized master-servant relationship between himself and Friday which can also be seen in terms of cultural assimilation. Crusoe represents the “enlightened” European and Friday is the “savage”. For Crusoe, Friday can only be redeemed from his cultural manners through assimilation into the European culture, but Defoe also uses Friday to criticize the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

 “Robinson Crusoe” has many comics, stage, films, and animated adaptations. The first comic was done by Classics Illustrated in 1943. The first stage adaptation was played in 1796 at the theatre Royal in London. In 1927, a silent British drama film produced by M. A. Wetherell came out. The first animated came out in 1988 and the first TV adaptation was a French film made in 1964 and staring Robert Hoffmann.

Overview

 “Robinson Crusoe” is presented as an autobiography of the title character who is a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical desert island. Defoe details an individual’s struggle to survive in basically hostile surroundings. As part of his day-to-day existence, Robinson Crusoe faces many hardships including starvation, illness, and even danger from cannibals, but he salvages what he can from the shipwreck and provides himself with shelter and rudimentary furniture and tools. Robinson never broods about his isolation preferring to occupy his time productively and succeed in an unpromising environment. He is an example of the triumph of the human spirit.

Beginning og the book

CHAPTER I

START IN LIFE

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called—nay we call ourselves and write our name—Crusoe; and so my companions always called me.

I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more than my father or mother knew what became of me.

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a country free school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving father’s house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing—viz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.

He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtue and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace and the body of rest, nor enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day’s experience to know it more sensibly.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man, nor to precipitate myself into miseries which nature, and the station of life I was born in, seemed to have provided against; that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it; and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning me against measures which he knew would be to my hurt; in a word, that as he would do very kind things for me if I would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes as to give me any encouragement to go away; and to close all, he told me I had my elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires prompting him to run into the army, where he was killed; and though he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I should have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there might be none to assist in my recovery.

I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did not know it to be so himself—I say, I observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, especially when he spoke of my brother who was killed: and that when he spoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so moved that he broke off the discourse, and told me his heart was so full he could say no more to me.

I was sincerely affected with this discourse, and, indeed, who could be otherwise? and I resolved not to think of going abroad any more, but to settle at home according to my father’s desire. But alas! a few days wore it all off; and, in short, to prevent any of my father’s further importunities, in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite away from him. However, I did not act quite so hastily as the first heat of my resolution prompted; but I took my mother at a time when I thought her a little more pleasant than ordinary, and told her that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to anything with resolution enough to go through with it, and my father had better give me his consent than force me to go without it; that I was now eighteen years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade or clerk to an attorney; that I was sure if I did I should never serve out my time, but I should certainly run away from my master before my time was out, and go to sea; and if she would speak to my father to let me go one voyage abroad, if I came home again, and did not like it, I would go no more; and I would promise, by a double diligence, to recover the time that I had lost.

This put my mother into a great passion; she told me she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to my father upon any such subject; that he knew too well what was my interest to give his consent to anything so much for my hurt; and that she wondered how I could think of any such thing after the discourse I had had with my father, and such kind and tender expressions as she knew my father had used to me; and that, in short, if I would ruin myself, there was no help for me; but I might depend I should never have their consent to it; that for her part she would not have so much hand in my destruction; and I should never have it to say that my mother was willing when my father was not.

Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet I heard afterwards that she reported all the discourse to him, and that my father, after showing a great concern at it, said to her, with a sigh, “That boy might be happy if he would stay at home; but if he goes abroad, he will be the most miserable wretch that ever was born: I can give no consent to it.”

It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though, in the meantime, I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling to business, and frequently expostulated with my father and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, where I went casually, and without any purpose of making an elopement at that time; but, I say, being there, and one of my companions being about to sail to London in his father’s ship, and prompting me to go with them with the common allurement of seafaring men, that it should cost me nothing for my passage, I consulted neither father nor mother any more, nor so much as sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as they might, without asking God’s blessing or my father’s, without any consideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, God knows, on the 1st of September 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London. Never any young adventurer’s misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued longer than mine. The ship was no sooner out of the Humber than the wind began to blow and the sea to rise in a most frightful manner; and, as I had never been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body and terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for my wicked leaving my father’s house, and abandoning my duty. All the good counsels of my parents, my father’s tears and my mother’s entreaties, came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.

All this while the storm increased, and the sea went very high, though nothing like what I have seen many times since; no, nor what I saw a few days after; but it was enough to affect me then, who was but a young sailor, and had never known anything of the matter. I expected every wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought it did, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never rise more; in this agony of mind, I made many vows and resolutions that if it would please God to spare my life in this one voyage, if ever I got once my foot upon dry land again, I would go directly home to my father, and never set it into a ship again while I lived; that I would take his advice, and never run myself into such miseries as these any more. Now I saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle station of life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had been exposed to tempests at sea or troubles on shore; and I resolved that I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father.

These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm lasted, and indeed some time after; but the next day the wind was abated, and the sea calmer, and I began to be a little inured to it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards night the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming fine evening followed; the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful that ever I saw.

Continue reading

• Site Progress Week of June 8, 2023
• Histoire du Théâtre Alexandrinski
• Progrès du Site semaine du 1 juin 2023
• Site Progress Week of June 1st, 2023
• Poème « Clair de Lune » de Paul Verlaine en anglais et français avec le tableau «Nuit au clair de lune en Crimée»
• Poem “Clair de Lune” by Paul Verlaine in English and French with the painting “Moonlit Night in Crimea”