I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth style
Wal Paget (1863-1935)
lithograph
15.6 cm high by 9.3 cm wide, vignetted
1891
Robinson Crusoe, embedded on page 93.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Passage Illustrated: Inept planning in building the boat
When I had gone through this work I was extremely delighted with it. The boat was really much bigger than ever I saw a canoe or periagua, that was made of one tree, in my life. Many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be sure; and had I gotten it into the water, I make no question, but I should have begun the maddest voyage, and the most unlikely to be performed, that ever was undertaken.
But all my devices to get it into the water failed me; though they cost me infinite labour too. It lay about one hundred yards from the water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was up hill towards the creek. Well, to take away this discouragement, I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth, and so make a declivity: this I began, and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains (but who grudge pains who have their deliverance in view?); but when this was worked through, and this difficulty managed, it was still much the same, for I could no more stir the canoe than I could the other boat.Then I measured the distance of ground, and resolved to cut a dock or canal, to bring the water up to the canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe down to the water. Well, I began this work; and when I began to enter upon it, and calculate how deep it was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff was to be thrown out, I found that, by the number of hands I had, being none but my own, it must have been ten or twelve years before I could have gone through with it; for the shore lay so high, that at the upper end it must have been at least twenty feet deep; so at length, though with great reluctancy, I gave this attempt over also.[Chapter IX, "A Boat" — running head, "I Make a Canoe," page 91]
Commentary: Crusoe builds another boat
Crusoe's learning by trial and error is not without its setbacks, but typically he analyzes the nature of the problem and determines how to resolve it. His determination to build a boat in order to explore the island has been the subject of many of the programs of illustration, beginning with Thomas Stothard in 1790. Paget illustrates the failed second attempt, in which Crusoe cannot launch the large canoe that he has taken months to build.
His third major attempt, illustrated by Stothard, proves far more successful because he addresses the problem of location and, with Friday's advice, chooses a more suitable species of tree with which to construct the hollowed-out canoe. Jean-Jacques Rousseau held up the novel and its resilient protagonist as examples of practical knowledge; however, determined though he may be to find a solution, Crusoe remains a complete amateur at every practical problem he attempts to solve through ingenuity, common sense, and trial-and-error. His motto might well be "If it works, it's good"— but it takes Crusoe several attempts before he is able to launch a boat.
Visually the composition is unorthodox in that it moves in a diagonal down the page, from the prow of the canoe at the top down through the gulley to Crusoe, digging. The illustration implies that Crusoe will be successful in launching this vessel since he seems to have gravity on his side, so that Paget leads the reader-viewer to a false expectation, if the reader attempts to process the illustration ahead of the text two pages earlier. An appropriate, analeptic reading, however, should prompt the reader to reflect of the causes of Crusoe's failure as well as on his sheer determination to succeed. The illustration must be read, too, against Crusoe's confidence in benign providence: "I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side" (93).
Parallel Scenes from Stothard (1790), Cruikshank (1831),and Cassell (1863)
Left: Stothard's 1790 realisation of the formerly solitary protagonist now
working alongside the ultimate "practical human being," the Noble Savage, Friday:
Theparallel scene from Cruikshank's illustrations for the 1831 John Major
edition,
Related Material
- Daniel Defoe
- Illustrations of Robinson Crusoe by various artists
- Illustrations of children’s editions
- The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe il. H. M. Brock at Project Gutenberg
- The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe at Project Gutenberg
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 30 April 2018