The Riddle of the Sands
HE BBC feature on "Robinson Crusoe" has already been discussed by one of my colleagues, but I should like to add two comments that occurred to me when listening to the 3YL broad-cast-neither being actually original. The first is that perhaps the BBC overemphasise the book’s romantic appeal-~ lonely islands, exotic parrots and the rest. To the eighteenth-century public--a hard-headed commercial middle class -is it not more likely that the excitement of the book lay in the fact that it depicted an ordinary,’ unromantic, bible-reading sailor, keeping himself alive with the familiar tools of a crafts-
man’s everyday trade? An_ intense realism, rather than romanticism, is surely the keynote, and there is all the world .of difference between Robinson Crusoe’s Polly and Long John Silver's Captain ("Pieces of eight") Flint. The other problem is less philosophical, less historical-how in the world or out of it did Friday manage, as is expressly stated, to leave in the middle of a large sandy beach only one solitary footprint?
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19450928.2.25.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 327, 28 September 1945, Page 12
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171The Riddle of the Sands New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 327, 28 September 1945, Page 12
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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