In Search Of Robinson Crusoe [Hardcover]

Tim Severin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 2002

For nearly three centuries, Robinson Crusoe has been the archetypal castaway, the symbol of survival in uninhabited wilds. In this book, Tim Severin adds this enterprising hero to the roster of legendary figures whose adventures he's replicated and whose origins he's explored. With the signature approach to literary and historical sleuthing that has led the New York Times to describe him as "original, audacious, and exuberant," Severin uncovers the seaman's world that captured Daniel Defoe's imagination, recounting dramatic survival stories of sailors, pirates, castaways, and native Americans and replicating their journeys to experience for himself the adventures that inspired Robinson Crusoe. He camps on islands that famous castaways once survived on, undertakes a perilous sea voyage, and searches Nicaragua and Honduras for the Miskutu Indians, the tribe that the model for Crusoe's companion, Friday, belonged to. Tim Severin has once again demonstrated a superb ability to bring together literature, history and adventure in an engrossing narrative.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Tim Severin's In Search of Robinson Crusoe is a fascinating melding of literary and bibliographic scholarship and wide-ranging travelogue that seeks out, and discovers, the flesh-and-blood prototypes for Daniel Defoe's famous castaway and his island home. Severin makes a convincing case that Alexander Selkirk, long assumed to be the model for Crusoe, was little more than Defoe's immediate inspiration. In fact, says Severin, Defoe based the setting and many episodes of his novel on gleanings from other contemporary accounts of maroonings (three, in particular). Severin's research takes him first to Selkirk's island, then to the coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras, where he visits the Miskitu Indians (on whose forebears Defoe likely based Crusoe's Man Friday) as well as to several thoroughly obscure Caribbean desert islets. The most intriguing sections of the book are recountings of the adventures of various abandoned seamen, including Pedro Serrano, a 16th-century mariner who maintained he had lived for seven years on a desolate cay devoid of fresh water. This is an audacious and thrilling book. --H. O'Billovich

From Publishers Weekly

In 1711, sailor Alexander Selkirk returned to his London home after being marooned on an island for nearly five years. Originally having asked to be abandoned on the isle, Selkirk piqued popular interest and his life story was eventually hammered into a novel by Daniel Defoe. Examining the fictional Crusoe alongside the historic realities of colonization and human ingenuity, Severin's (In Search of Moby Dick) modus operandi is as simple as it is enjoyable. Readers learn about the history of marooning among plunderers, blockade navies and other piratical sailors, as well as the ethnography of the so-called "Moskito Man" (aka Man Friday) and all the ways to provide for oneself on a deserted island. But the crown jewel in this adventure is the author's travels to remote places while investigating the Where Is It Now? angle. Severin trips to Caledonia, Honduras and several Caribbean islands, looking for the most likely dwelling place of the world-famous shipwrecked sailor. Although he has made a name for himself with such stylized examinations, Severin sometimes, in offhand remarks, sounds disgruntled at being shuttled to the far corners of the world. Nevertheless, the work is energetic and Severin is an ideal guide to the world behind the word. This will surely appeal to the lovers of maritime history. Illus. and maps.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st edition (May 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 046507698X
• ISBN-13: 978-0465076987
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,118,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Crusoe Found?, September 14, 2006

By 

J. S. Hilsdon - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search Of Robinson Crusoe (Paperback)

This is not the first such voyage of literary detection upon which Tim Severin has embarked, though it is the first I have read.

What Severin presents you with is a narrative mix that alternates between his retellings of the primary sources, the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century published voyage-narratives that were Defoe's potential sources for his novel Robinsion Crusoe, and accounts of Severin's own "in the foot-steps" travels around the relevant locations.

In both these areas of narrative Severin's prose makes for an entertaining and compelling read. He is apposite and insightful without pretence. In his historical judgment, he occasionally seems intemperate and one-sided; his treatment Captain Shelvocke seems particularly severe. This is because, ultimately, he writes more like a journalist than an historian, but his portraits of historical characters certainly bring them to life for the reader.

In describing his contemporary travels, Severin's observations are equally acute, often poignant and occasionally hilarious. A particular treat is his account of Grand Cayman, a hugely amusing study of petty officialdom in a small, rich, self-important but essentially dysfunctional, offshore haven.

The book's conclusion is not earth-shattering or at all unexpected. Crusoe isn't Alexander Selkirk, though the latter's contemporary celebrity doubtless made him a significant influence upon Defoe. Crusoe is a fictional composite who owes a little something to a variety of historical seafarers. Severin also shows us the historical prototypes of Man Friday, a component entirely absent from Selkirk's story.

The nearest to "finding Crusoe" Severin gets is to identify the historical man to whom the fictional hero Crusoe is said to owe the most.

I won't spoil things by naming him, but I was fascinated to read about Severin's prime suspect. Although Severin never makes this connection in his book, it is blindingly obvious that his candidate for Crusoe was, in fact, also the source for Rafael Sabatini's great swashbuckling hero, Peter Blood.

None of this matters because, with Severin's excellent narrative, the pleasure is in the journey rather than the final destination.

I will tell you, however, what Tim Severin does not: Robinson Crusoe and Captain Blood are one and the same!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended history blended with adventure and travel, December 5, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search Of Robinson Crusoe (Hardcover)

Daniel Defoe based his famous Robin Crusoe castaway character on the real-life seafaring adventurers of men who were his contemporaries - and who did survive for years on isolated islands after shipwrecks. Tim Severin camped out on islands castaways once survived on, and searched South America for the tribes which were a model for Crusoe's companion Man Friday. In Search Of Robinson Crusoe is highly recommended history blended with adventure and travel in a revealing and thoroughly engaging.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For the Armchair Explorer in Us All, April 10, 2006

By 

John A Lee III "jal3" (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Search Of Robinson Crusoe (Hardcover)

Tim Severin's books have never failed to engross me and this one is no exception. In it, he looks at the story of Robinson Crusoe and examines what is known about the origins of the story and then goes to explore for himself. The result is a rewarding voyage of exploration without leaving the comfort of the air conditioning.

It is widely accepted that the story of Crusoe is based upon the real life adventure of Alexander Selkirk on Juan Fernandez Island. Severin tracks down what is known about this flash in the historical pan and then explores his island and his relationships to other people who enter his story. Selkirk's adventure took place in the Pacific but Crusoe takes place in the Caribbean. Selkirk also had no man Friday to accompany him. So it is that the areas in the Carib which might have influenced Crusoe are also examined. So too are the people with whom Daniel Defoe may have been in contact.

Severin puts forth the hypothesis that the story of Selkirk may have been the inspiration for Crusoe but that the actual tale of the novel is based upon several other real life exploits of other people.

Reading this book will not solve the world's great problems nor will it add to your bottom line. It will simply broaden a few horizons and provide for some pleasurable musings.