All of this does, of course, skirt around the elephant in the room, as it were. This edition of Robinson Crusoe has been drawn from the original accounts and journals, few copies of which are known to exist. These original documents reveal Crusoe's exile, and indeed much of his life, to be a far darker and more ominous tale than most editions have shown. Seen in this new light, some of these facts will have the manuscript dismissed as a work of pure fiction at best and trite fantasy at worst, even though many of the corroborating elements have always remained in Defoe's more popular version.
This version of that manuscript was first found amidst the papers of writer, historian, and bibliophile Howard P. Lovecraft a few years after his death in 1937. Lovecraft had footnoted an amazing amount of the manuscript and cross-referenced it with certain texts and histories available at the Old College Library of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Curwen Rare Books Library of Miskatonic University. Those footnotes have allowed me to simplify some of Crusoe's more poetic and elaborate descriptions in this abridged edition, and also to put names to many things Defoe found unnameable.
It may also be noted that this edition contains several more proper names than previously published versions. Thanks here must again go to Lovecraft and his extensive research. The writer spent countless hours sifting through historical documents in several languages for birth records, death notices, and other hints at the numerous identities Crusoe himself was oblique about, and Defoe's changes only concealed more.
The issue of time and dates throughout the manuscript should also be acknowledged. At this point in history, England was still using the Julian calendar while many European countries (most notably Spain and Portugal, which figure heavily into the tale) had switched to the modern Gregorian calendar, and there is evidence Crusoe switches freely between the two. While logs, harbor records, and shipping manifests allow us to pinpoint certain moments in the narrative (Lovecraft notes a special thanks to the Cape Cod Maritime Museum), Crusoe's years on the island are documented only by himself. He gives numerous dates throughout his records, yet they very rarely match with one another and inconsistencies are common. At one point in the manuscript October comes just seven months after the previous November, and mid-December follows just two weeks later. Some see this inaccuracy as a sign of Crusoe's degenerating sanity, using the rest of the manuscript as evidence thereof. Lovecraft himself notes the time inconsistencies only occur during Crusoe's years on the island, and sees it as a sign of just how dangerous that place is.
As a final historical note, this view was shared by the Royal British Navy and the modern Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force. After the rediscovery of Crusoe's island in 1890, and the subsequent investigation and explorations, the British fleet began an unofficial blockade that lasted through World War II. When Trinidad and Tobago became an independent nation in 1962, this blockade became a state-mandated 10 mile quarantine zone around the island. To this day two TTDF coast guard large patrol craft are always on maneuvers there.
--P. C.
Los Angeles, March 1st, 2010
My family, my nature,
my first voyage
I was born on the last day of the full moon in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, tho’ not of that country, my father being a foreigner who had fled the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen and 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 and from whom I was called Robinson Kreisszahn. By the usual corruption of words in England we are now called, nay we call ourselves, and write, our name Crusoe.
I had two elder brothers, both of the same bloodline and inheritance as myself. One was lieutenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk when he was run thru with a silver saber. What became of my second brother I was never told, though I was led to guess he had succumb'd to the life of the beast afore I was old enough to know him.