MASTERPIECES OF DEFOE AND SWIFT WIDELY READ--TWO WRITERS
OF GENIUS WHOSE STORIES HAVE DELIGHTED READERS FOR
HUNDREDS OF YEARS.
Two famous books that seem to follow naturally after _Pilgrim's
Progress_ are Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_ and Swift's _Gulliver's
Travels_. Not to be familiar with these two English masterpieces is to
miss allusions which occur in everyday reading even of newspapers and
magazines. Probably not one American boy in one thousand is ignorant of
_Robinson Crusoe_. It is the greatest book of adventure for boys that
has ever been written, because it relates the novel and exciting
experiences of a castaway sailor on a solitary island in a style so
simple that a child of six is able to understand it. Yet the mature
reader who takes up _Robinson Crusoe_ will find it full of charm,
because he can see the art of the novelist, revealed in that passion for
minute detail to which we have come to give the name of realism, and
that spiritual quality which makes the reader a sharer in the fears, the
loneliness and the simple faith of the sailor who lived alone for so
many years on Juan Fernandez Island.
[Illustration:
PORTRAIT OF DANIEL DEFOE
FROM AN OLD STEEL ENGRAVING--DEFOE'S
GENIUS FOR SECRECY EFFECTUALLY DESTROYED
MOST MATERIAL FOR HIS BIOGRAPHY
AND EVEN THIS PORTRAIT IS
NOT AUTHENTIC]
In all English literature there is nothing finer than the descriptions
of Robinson Crusoe's solitary life, his delight in his pets, and his
care and training of Friday. Swift's work, on the other hand, is not for
children, although young readers may enjoy the ludicrous features of
Gulliver's adventures. Back of these is the bitter satire on all human
traits which no one can appreciate who has not had hard experience in
the ways of the world. These two books are the masterpieces of their
authors, but if any one has time to read others of their works he will
be repaid, for both made noteworthy contributions to the literature that
endures.
Daniel Defoe, the son of a butcher, was born in 1661 and died in 1731.
Much of his career is still a puzzle to literary students because of his
extraordinary passion for secrecy. He gained no literary fame until
after fifty years of age, although he had written many pamphlets and had
conducted a review which gave to Addison the idea of _The Spectator_.
Defoe engaged in mercantile business and failed. He also wrote much for
the Government, his pungent and persuasive style fitting him for the
career of a pamphleteer. But his independence and his lack of tact
caused him to lose credit at court and he fell back upon literature. He
may be called the first of the newspaper reporters, before the day of
the daily newspaper, and he first saw the advantage of the interview. No
one has ever surpassed him in the power of making an imaginary narrative
seem real and genuine by minute detail artfully introduced.
The English-reading public was captured by _Robinson Crusoe_. Four
editions were called for in four months, and Defoe met the demand for
more stories from his pen by issuing in the following year _Duncan
Campbell_, _Captain Singleton_ and _Memoirs of a Cavalier_. It is
evident that Defoe had written these works in previous years and had not
been encouraged to print them. Readers of today seldom look into these
books, but the _Memoirs_ are noteworthy for splendid descriptions of
fights between Roundheads and Cavaliers, and _Captain Singleton_
contains a memorable narrative of an expedition across Africa, then an
unknown land, which anticipated many of the discoveries of Mungo Park,
Bruce, Speke, and Stanley.
[Illustration:
ILLUSTRATION OF "ROBINSON CRUSOE"
BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK WHICH SERVES AS A
FRONTISPIECE TO MAJOR'S EDITION OF
DEFOE'S ROMANCE, 1831]
Defoe's other works are _Moll Flanders_, _Colonel Jack_, _Roxana_, and
_Journal of the Plague Year_. Years ago I read all the novels of Defoe,
taking them up at night after work hours. They are not to be commended
as books that will induce sleep, because they are far too entertaining.
Defoe's story of the great plague in London is far more striking than
the records of those who actually lived through the terrible months when
a great city was converted into a huge charnel-house by the pestilence
that walketh by noonday. Pepys in his _Diary_ has many passages on the
plague, but these do not appeal to one as Defoe's story does, probably
because Pepys did not have the literary faculty.
The three other stories all deal with life in the underworld of London.
Defoe in Moll Flanders and Roxana depicts two types of the courtesan
and, despite several coarse scenes, the narratives of the lives of
these women are singularly entertaining. The only dull spots are those
in which he indulges in his habit of drawing pious morals from the vices
of his characters. From these stories one may get a better idea of the
London of the early part of the eighteenth century than from books which
were specially written to describe the customs and manners of the time,
because Defoe regarded nothing as too trivial to set down in his
descriptions.
Defoe wrote his masterpiece from materials furnished by a sailor,
Alexander Selkirk, who returned to London after spending many years of
solitude on the Island of Juan Fernandez. The records of the time give a
brief outline of his adventures, and there is no question that Defoe
interviewed this man and received from his lips the suggestion of his
immortal story. But everything that has made the book a classic for
three hundred years was furnished by Defoe himself.
The life of the story lies in the artfully written details of the daily
life of the sailor from the time when he was cast ashore on the desolate
island. Even the mature reader takes a keen interest in the salvage by
Crusoe of the many articles which are to prove of the greatest value to
him, while to any healthy child this is one of the most absorbing
stories of adventure ever written. The child cannot appreciate Crusoe's
mental and moral attitude, but the mature reader sees between the lines
of the solitary sailor's reflexions the lessons which Defoe learned in
those hard years when everything he touched ended in failure.
[Illustration:
FRONTISPIECE TO THE
FIRST EDITION OF "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS"
A PORTRAIT ENGRAVED IN COPPER OF
CAPTAIN LEMUEL GULLIVER
OF REDRIFF]
Jonathan Swift may be bracketed with Defoe, because he was born in 1667
and died in 1745, only fourteen years after death claimed the author of
_Robinson Crusoe_. As Defoe is known mainly by his story of the island
castaway, so Swift is known by his bitter satire, _Gulliver's Travels_,
although he was a prolific writer of political pamphlets. Swift is
usually regarded as an Irishman, but he was of English stock, although
by chance he happened to be born in Ireland. He was educated at Trinity
College, Dublin, and he had the great advantage of several years'
residence at the country seat of Sir William Temple, one of the most
accomplished men of his time.
There he was associated with Esther Johnson, a poor relation of Temple's
who later became the Stella who inspired his journal. Swift, through
the influence of Temple, hoped to get political preferment, but though
he wrote many pamphlets and a strong satire in verse, _The Tale of a
Tub_, his hopes of office were disappointed. Finally he obtained a
living at Laracor, in Meath, and there he preached several years, making
frequent visits to London and Dublin.
Like Defoe, Swift wrote English that was modern in its simplicity and
directness. He never indulged in florid metaphor or concealed his
thought under verbiage. Everything was clear, direct, incisive. While
Defoe accepted failure frankly and remained untinged with bitterness,
Swift seemed to store up venom after every defeat and every humiliation,
and this poison he injected into his writings.
Although a priest of the church, he divided his attentions for years
between Stella, the woman he first met at Sir William Temple's, and
Vanessa, a young woman of Dublin. He was reported to have secretly
married Stella in 1716, but there is no record of the marriage. Seven
years later he broke off all relations with Vanessa because she wrote to
Stella asking her if she were married to Swift, and this rupture brought
on the woman's death. Stella's death followed soon after, and the
closing years of Swift were clouded with remorse and fear of insanity.
[Illistration (with text):
TRAVELS
INTO SEVERAL
Remote Nations
OF THE
WORLD.
In FOUR PARTS.
By _LEMUEL GULLIVER_,
First a SURGEON, and then a CAPTAIN
of several SHIPS.