We have already seen that Defoe had niade some mild attempts at semi-fictitious writing before the second edition (1718) of Woodes Rogers' (Cruising Voyage' brought, in all prob ability, the story of Sellark, much in evidence six years before, once more to his attention. An omnivorous reader, he undoubtedly knew the work of preceding picaresque writers, like the author of The English Rogue,' as well as that of Mrs. Aphra Behn, but in the main his contribution to English fiction was orig inal. He had learned early as a pamphleteer to narrate and to describe in a lifelike vide his (True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal' (1706)—and he had also learned to manage dialogue and to tell anecdotes ef fectively. Later he had learned how to con struct books of some length and to make them less and less sprawling; he had even begun to create characters and to move in imagina tion in foreign countries and in the past—vide, his of the Wars' of Charles XII of Sweden (1715) 15) and his (Continuation) of the famous (Letters' supposed to be written by a °Turkish Spy* (1718). Shorter pieces more specifically fictitious might be added to these, but the main point is that he had gradually, probably without knowledge of it or conscious purpose of any sort, been assembling the quali ties and materials necessary to the writing of fiction. The story of Selkirk supplied the oc casion, the spark, and Defoe was doubtless influenced also by the facts that he now lived at home, being no longer sent by the govern ment on tiresome journeys, and that, writing as he did with great ease, the more books he couldproduce, the more money he could lay by to furnish dowries for several daughters, to whose attractiveness one of his future sons in-law, the naturalist Henry Baker, has borne testimony. In some such uninvolved and human
way, we may imagine, one of the most unin volved and human books ever written came into existence, and it was in giving this book, not merely to his countrymen, but to the world, and in showing other writers what it was to be uninvolved and human in their stories that Daniel Defoe proved himself to be a benefactor to the race. To the student he is in his mixed character and in his perplexing career one of the most interesting of men; to the masses of mankind he is and will always remain the Author of Robinson a name and little else. The thing created has swallowed its cre ator, which is not far from being the highest tribute that can be paid to any achievement.
Convenient editions of (Robinson Crusoe> may be found in the Globe, Golden Treasury and other well-known series, and in the late George A. Aitken's edition of Defoe's 'Romances and Narratives.' The text of most editions, how• ever, leaves much to be desired. The writer has endeavored to supply an accurate text of the first part in a school edition published in 1916 by Ginn and Company, and he has an edition of the same part with full apparatus in the press of the same firm.
W. P. Titer.