Robinson is the second novel by

Muriel Spark Dame Muriel Sarah Spark (née Camberg; 1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006). was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Life Muriel Camberg was born in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, the daughter of Bernard Camberg, an ...

, first published by

Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...

in 1958 and in the US by

Lippincott Lippincott may refer to: Arts and media * ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine'' a 19th-century literary magazine published in Philadelphia, U.S. * Andy Lippincott, a fictional character in the comic strip ''Doonesbury'' * "Lippincott", a song by Animal ...

, and is unusual within her body of work in being written in the first person. The novel is set in 1954 and begins with 29 people on a plane bound for

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

and then

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

that crashes on a remote island in the North Atlantic, killing all the crew and most of the passengers. The narrator, January Marlow, and two other survivors, are nursed by Robinson, a mysterious loner already in residence on the island. As the novel progresses, their physical health returns, but the mental health of the characters is tested by the extreme circumstances. For rescue, they await the coming of the boat that will collect the

pomegranate The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between tall. The pomegranate was originally described throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean re ...

crop, the first contact with civilisation since their disappearance. A young boy called Miguel and a cat called Bluebell flesh out the cast list. The novel features typical Spark themes, such as Catholicism, dramatic accidents, guns, a small group of individuals united by a common theme, and a budding writer. The book belongs in a long English tradition of desert island stories, and it evokes Shakespeare's '' The Tempest'', as well as novels from

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

's own

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...

, to

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...

and Swiss Family Robinson. It can also be seen in relation to its immediate predecessor, ''

Lord of the Flies ''Lord of the Flies'' is a 1954 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. Themes i ...

'' (1954), in considering civilisation from the vantage point of a setting where customary rules break down. It has also been suggested that January's surname, Marlow, connects the book to Conrad's ''

Heart of Darkness ''Heart of Darkness'' (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel ...

''. Bryan Cheyette has argued that Robinson is a good example of Spark's evocation of a 'distinctly female spirituality', and that the novel is 'closely related to Spark's own experiences in the late 1940s and mid-1950s'.

Alan Bold Alan Norman Bold (1943–1998) was a Scottish poet, biographer, journalist and saxophonist. He was born in Edinburgh. He edited Hugh MacDiarmid's ''Letters'' and wrote the influential biography ''MacDiarmid''. Bold had acquainted himself with Mac ...

has pointed out in his work on Spark that the novel has caused interpretive conflict, with one English critic terming it 'the most obscure and the least successful of her novels', and another finding it somewhat dismissively a 'witty theological parable'. However, a recent study has argued that Robinson is more of an achievement, and 'artfully reflects the diminishment of postwar Britain's national imperial status'.

References

{{Muriel Spark 1958 British novels Novels by Muriel Spark Novels set on islands Macmillan Publishers books Aviation accidents and incidents in fiction Fiction set in 1954 J. B. Lippincott & Co. books Catholic novels

Further reading

References