鲁滨孙漂流记（英文版）

Chapter I Start in Life

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called—nay we call ourselves and write our name—Crusoe; and so my companions always called me.

I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more than my father or mother knew what became of me.

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a country free school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving father’s house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or

too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing—viz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.

笛福（Daniel Defoe，1660－1731），英国小说家。笛福只受过中等教育，宗教上受其父的影响，一直保持不同于国教信仰的立场，政治上倾向于辉格党。笛福早年经营内衣、烟酒、羊毛等生意，到大陆各国贸易，又曾参加反对国教的叛乱，提倡筑路，办银行、保险业、女学、疯人院，并曾因反对贵族天主教势力而被捕入狱。笛福于59岁开始写作小说，因《鲁滨孙漂流记》一炮而红，此后写作了《鲁滨孙沉思集》、《辛格尔顿船长》、《杰克上校》、《罗克萨娜》等小说，还有若干传记。

1704年，苏格兰水手赛尔科克在船上反叛，被抛到智利外海的一座荒岛上，生活了五年。笛福受到这一事件的启发，写成此书。

《鲁滨孙漂流记》以真实具体、亲切自然的文风描写鲁滨孙孤独地在海上生活二十八年的经历，不仅在英国文学史上是个里程碑，而且在世界文学史上都可称作第一部以现实主义文风写出的现代小说，由此，作者笛福就有了“现代小说之父”的美称。笛福一生笔耕不辍，大量的写作磨练了笛福的笔锋，《鲁滨孙漂流记》不论是叙事，还是写景，大都能够使人如闻其声、如临其境，因而，阅读这部书的人在各国的小说读者群中一直高居榜首。此书自出版至今已被译成各种文字，在全球行销量几百版。

Table of Contents

Chapter I Start in Life ............................................................... 001

Chapter II Slavery and Escape ................................................. 016

Chapter III Wrecked on a Desert Island ................................031

Chapter IV First Weeks on the Island .....................................053

Chapter V Builds a House-The Journal ................................... 078

Chapter VI Ill and Conscience-Stricken .................................094

Chapter VII Agricultural Experience ...................................... 110

Chapter VIII Surveys His Position .......................................... 122

Chapter IX A Boat ......................................................................135

Chapter X Tames Goats .............................................................155

Chapter XI Finds Print of Man’s Foot on the Sand ................169

Chapter XII A Cave Retreat ..................................................... 185

Chapter XIII Wreck of a Spanish Ship....................................205

Chapter XIV A Dream Realised ............................................... 221

Chapter XV Friday’s Education ............................................... 240

Chapter XVI Rescue of Prisoners from Cannibals ................. 258

Chapter XVII Visit of Mutineers ............................................ 278

Chapter XVIII The Ship Recovered ...................................... 296

Chapter XIX Return to England .............................................. 316

Chapter XX Fight Between Friday and a Bear ........................ 334