Robinson Crusoe - Student Quality Library (Teacher Accompanied Reading Edition)

Author: Daniel Defoe
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: In 1632, I was born into an upper-class family in Yorkshire. We were not locals. My father was from Bremen, Germany. After moving to England, he first lived in Hull and made a fortune in business before retiring. He eventually settled in Yorkshire, where he married my mother. My mother's maiden name was Robinson, from a local noble family, and she named me Robinson Crusoe. Because the English mispronounced the German surname "Crusoe," everyone called us "Cruso," and even we started calling ourselves that. So, my friends called me Crusoe. I had two older brothers. My eldest brother was a major in the British infantry regiment stationed in Flanders. The famous Colonel Lockhart once led this regiment. My eldest brother died in battle near Dunkirk against the Spanish. As for my second brother, I still have no idea where he is, just like my parents were completely unaware of my later circumstances. I was the youngest son in the family, so my parents didn't teach me any trade to make a living. I was always fond of daydreaming and longed to travel abroad. At that time, my father was already old, but he still gave me a very good education. He sent me to a boarding school and also had me attend free rural education, hoping I would study law in the future. But I had no interest in any of this—I just wanted to go to sea. I completely disregarded my father's wishes, even defied his orders, and paid no heed to my mother's pleas or my friends' advice. This nature seemed to have doomed me to an unhappy fate in the future. My father was intelligent and cautious. He predicted that my intentions would inevitably bring me misfortune, so he often lectured me seriously and gave me many valuable pieces of advice. One morning, he called me into his bedroom because he was suffering from a severe attack of gout and could not move easily. He earnestly advised me. He asked me, apart from my obsession with traveling the world, what reason I had to abandon my parents and leave home. In my hometown, I could be introduced to society and establish myself. If I worked hard, I could certainly become wealthy and live a comfortable and happy life. He told me that most people who go abroad for adventure are either penniless or greedy for sudden riches. They are ambitious and want to achieve extraordinary things to make a name for themselves. But for me, this was neither worthwhile nor necessary. In terms of my social status, I was right in the middle, as they say—the middle class. From his long experience, he believed that this middle class was the best in the world and the most likely to bring happiness. They did not have to engage in hard physical labor like the lower classes, nor did they suffer from the exhaustion of luxury, ambition, and rivalry like the upper classes. He said that from many facts, I could see that the life of the middle class was truly blissful. This is why people envied this status—many kings lamented the misfortunes brought by their noble birth and wished they had been born into the middle class between poverty and high status.