Novel Beginnings (ENGL 3205)

I enjoyed this one but I confess being a bit surprised and disappointed. While I hadn’t read it before, a friend had and then chose to do a short story to follow the amatory fashion. Hers had a happy ending; Fantomina does not. I read through her many disguises and his continual defection waiting for the big reveal moment. I had actually had to pause in reading it for some reason or another and I plotted out their married life, how they could make it work given how inconstant he was. I guessed that probably he would suspend his belief and they would continue on as before only married and what a scandal it might cause if she were always known to be out of town while he carried on with a “different” woman every other week. When I was able to return to reading the text and she became pregnant I was a bit disappointed but accepted it as a traditional way to catch the commitment-phobic swain into a lasting commitment, though it really would be the worst way to do so. In retrospect it’s actually pretty funny that instead she is exposed as the seducer and he is freed of all reason to marry her. It doesn’t make her ruin any less at his hands as, while she certainly did tempt it beyond which she could – at the time – have expected to escape, she refused his attempts at going that last step, only consenting when it seemed there was no other option, if she consented at all. Granted, after that first time she was the pursuer and went to great lengths to resume their affair and if she had just stopped after that once she could’ve escaped mostly unharmed. Her conscience doesn’t seem overly great as she continually dupes people and him in particular so she could’ve married some unsuspecting man and acted the virgin. Depending on who you’re reading Catherin of Aragon did it so she would even have royal precedent.Instead she goes through her disguises and is really quite remarkable. If her mother hadn’t come back to town, just how far would she have gone? Would she ever have tried to get him into marriage? She might have been successful if she went through her actual identity even though at first he paid her little attention. More than once it mentioned how he admired her actual identity. Though she did it all supposedly out of love for him, maybe she would’ve enjoyed going into acting instead of submitting to her mother and going to live in a French convent. Is there a sequal to Fantomina? Maybe she could fall for the groundskeeper and start another affair over there…

I also came to this short story with the notion that it was the precursor of Harlequinn romances, further bolstering up my belief that there must be a happy ending. Now I’m questioning if I really did hear that somewhere or if I just guessed given how it would’ve been “trashy” literature at the time and Harlequinns are very trashy today. Also, by trashy I don’t mean that they are any less valid but they’re entertaining in a very different way than reading a Jane Austen novel. There might be a link in that people would read Amatory fiction and then decide how it should have ended but that tendancy might just be a result of Disney.

In short, I found Fantomina very interesting though short and not the happiest of endings. It reminded me a lot of some of the plays we read for Restoration Drama and I’m looking forward to hearing about the woman who wrote it tomorrow.

Robinson Crusoe, while a classic, was not nearly as entertaining a read as I’m expecting watching Robinson Crusoe on Mars to be. Crusoe was a very frustrating character as throughout the course of the novel he repeatedly brings about his own ruin. When I had first finished I tried to be sympathetic to him and remind myself that since it was written retrospectively he’d had a chance to recognize his mistakes though he wouldn’t have at the time. Then I remembered the sea captian yelling at him and the repeated divine warnings and all sympathy was lost. Crusoe left with dire warnings from his parents and disobeying his father and thereby the Commandments which state that you must obey your parents. While less so at the time, we can identify with rebelling against our parents but Crusoe further flaunts God when he makes vows to stop his rebellious plans to go to sea if he was spared from the storm. He is spared and he quickly dismisses his promises and determines on a sea life again. After this he becomes worse than useless when an especially bad storm rises up and not only is he unable to help try and save the ship, he has to be carried off it because he keeps fainting! By this time I had little good to say of Crusoe and it just got worse from there. He should’ve been able to connect the dots and determine that there was a bad a storm, he made a deal with God and he was spared and when he went back on his part, God went back on it too. Just in case he really was that lacking, the now ruined sea captain spells it out for him that to lead a life asea is to ask for ruin and points out that he would never again sail with him because he’ll spread that ruin to those he sails with. So what does Crusoe do? Does he take the money people were kind enough to give him and return home? Nope! He travels onto London to continue his ridiculous plans. Crusoe is clearly not only very stubbourn and not very bright but he is also very selfish. To cause his own ruin is bad enough… to bring about the ruin of others is inexcusable and, in my eyes, makes it impossibleto excuse his actions.

He sails again despite every reason not to and after making one safe trip, he next gets captured and enslaved by Moor pirates. Frankly, he deserved it though I’m not sure the others did. As a slave, he had no choice but to do what he was told so he couldn’t make exceptionally stupid decisions. Unfortunately, he then escapes. With the help of another slave, Zuri, he escapes and manages to sail around til finding a European ship. I always try to judge a book by its times but I still had difficulty with him selling Zuri off. If it weren’t for Zuri he might not have made it to that ship, plus he had experience as a slave but still sold a friend into slavery. There’s just nothing redeeming about Crusoe!

He spent some time on a plantation and managed to become profitable but quickly switched to a sea life again! Heaven forbid he actually have some kind of stability or kept his promises to God. He then of course gets stranded on the island where, supposedly, he redeems himself. I do see the evidence of how he became more religious but I don’t believe it all that much. I almost wonder if he was trying to flaunt God further because he erects a Cross – not to God or his religion – but to himself and his time on the island. He sets himself up like a king when he finally accepts he’s on the island and while he did have a religious vision, it doesn’t change how focused he is on materialistic goods or the lack of care he show for others. He makes a goat his pet and almost lets it starve to death and I think he only saved Friday ought of a need for another slave rather than to save a life.

In short, I disliked Crusoe before writing this blog and I know dislike him intensely. He’s a selfish, heretical fool who doesn’t deserve the multiple Divine Interventions and really should have stayed on the island to perish, along with his manuscript.