Борис Віан. Осінь в Пекіні

The well-known novel by the classic of the English literature Daniel Defoe (1660—1731) was written on the basis of real event: a sailor Alexander Selkirk, because of his conflict with the captain, was left on the desert island with the minimum stores of provision and spent there four years. The ins and outs of his interaction with natural forces, with the God, his deeper self-awareness and perceiving his own true necessities of life — all of this is intervolved into the thrilling account about the adventures of a man who from the comfortable conditions of civilisation found himself in the unfriendly “green desert” without absolutely indispensible essentials and tools of labour. The hero, anew for himself, defines the values of many things and some of his conclusions may seem somewhat unexpected for our contemporaries.

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a country free school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me.