"A kind of wild pigeon" — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

A kind of wild pigeon

Wal Paget (1863-1935)

quarter-page lithograph

7.8 cm high by 6.9 cm wide, vignetted.

1891

Robinson Crusoe, embedded on page 53.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Crusoe's Game Birds

During this time I made my rounds in the woods for game every day when the rain permitted me, and made frequent discoveries in these walks of something or other to my advantage; particularly, I found a kind of wild pigeons, which build, not as wood-pigeons in a tree, but rather as house-pigeons, in the holes of the rocks; and taking some young ones, I endeavoured to breed them up tame, and did so; but when they grew older they flew away, which perhaps was at first for want of feeding them, for I had nothing to give them; however, I frequently found their nests, and got their young ones, which were very good meat. [Chapter IV, "Builds a House — The Journal," page 55]

Commentary

This and the previous illustration are highly unusual in this series because no human being occurs within the visual text, and Crusoe himself is present only by implication, for he is a mere observer in both instances. Paget in a Rousseauesque vein generally depicts nature as benign; Crusoe's troubles come more often from his fellow humans rather than creatures such as bears and wolves, although he encounters both towards the end of Part One. Paget delights in these nature scenes, representing the multiple species and tropical foliage of theCaribbean island. His naturalist bent may in part stem from his appreciation of such books as Thomas Bewick's exquisitely detailed illustrations for History of British Birds (2 volumes, 1797 and 1804, but frequently re-issued throughout the nineteenth-century ). Thus, Paget in illustrating Defoe's timeless classic transforms it into an art book, one of some 1,200 such books issued in Great Britain between 1850 and 1900 which would include A History of British Birds (1843) by William Yarrell. Both Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre and William Wordsworth in his poems were much influenced by Bewick's field guide.

Related Material

Reference

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred and Twenty Original Illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris, and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.

Last modified 26 April 2018