"Crusoe sees a Foot-print in the Sand" for Daniel Defoe's "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1863-64) (original) (raw)

The Passage Illustrated: The Most Memorable Moment

It happened one day, about noon going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man’s naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened, I looked round me, but I could hear nothing, nor see anything; I went up to a rising ground to look farther; I went up the shore and down the shore, but it was all one; I could see no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the print of a foot — toes, heel, and every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine; but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man. Nor is it possible to describe how many various shapes my affrighted imagination represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were found every moment in my fancy, and what strange, unaccountable whimsies came into my thoughts by the way. [Chapter XI, "Finds Print of Man's Foot on the Sand," pp. 103-104]

The Iconic Moment: Crusoe Discovers He is not Alone

The picture immediately precedes this passage, so that the 1864 reader anticipated the textual moment for two full pages and then in all likelihood reverted to the image after reading of the momentous discovery. The illustrator prepares us well for the moment of discovery even as the narrator recalls his terror ("I fled like one pursued") and his inability to sleep that night, even in a secure location. Robert L. Patten has analyzed Cruikshank's pencil sketch upon which he based this engraving, noting how the goatskin parasol acts as a kind of exclamation point to Crusoe's shocked downward glance and his recoiling at the realisation that, after all these years, he is not alone on this little island at the mouth of the Orinocco:

When Crusoe and his dog discover Friday's footprint (a must for any illustrator), Stothard's hero muses, while Cruikshank's starts back amazed, apprehensive, hopeful, "like one thunderstruck,"as the text insists (fig. 68). Every line of Crusoe's body mimes a startled nervous reflex, his umbrella makes a grotesque exclamation point, and his dog draws back, front legs stiff, head turned to his master, ear roots tensed, tail arrested. Cruikshank picks moments of travail and resourcefulness. And he designs his cuts to be dropped into the text, where they play with and against the surrounding letterpress to bring out the medley of tones inherent in the narrative. [pp. 336-37]

George Housman Thomasresponded to this 1831 illustration with psychological realism, adding details of the lonely shore, the waves breaking gently to the right, and Crusoe's parasol thrown down in his excitement. The wicker basket on his shoulder establishes that he has been engaged in gathering on the shore, and the leafy border offers no comment upon this human discovery, for it is not the natural but the social environment that in a moment the footprint, prominently displayed, lower right, has altered irrevocably.

Parallel Scenes from Stothard (1790), and the Children's Books (1818, 1820), and Cruikshank (1831)

Left: Stothard's 1790 realisation of this highly charged moment, Robinson Crusoe discovers the print of a man's foot (Chapter XI, "Finds the print of a man's foot on the sand." (copper-engraving). Right: A colourful realisation of the scene from a early 19th c. children's book Robinson Crusoe's terror at the print of the human foot(hand-tinted copper-plate). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Left: An elegant oval vignette of Crusoe in "island dress" on the shore, I was much surprized at the print of a man's foot on the shore (1820). Right: Cruikshank's caricatural realisation of the same scene, Friday's Footprint — Crusoe discovers a human footprint on the beach (1831). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

References

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by himself. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64.

Patten, Robert L. "Phase 2: "'The Finest Things, Next to Rembrandt's,' 1720–1835." Chapter 20, "Thumbnail Designs." George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 1: 1792-1835. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers U. P., 1992; London: The Lutterworth Press, 1992. Pp. 325-339.

Last modified 13 March 2018