I read this book as a school assignment, but thoroughly expected to enjoy it because of its reputation. However, I did not make it far into the storyline before I began to find problems, and by the end of the book, I hated it.

First, what is the point of shooting a lion lounging on the riverbank as you drift safely by in a boat in midstream? This lion was in no way acting aggressively, so there was no reasonable excuse for Crusoe to quell his fear by shooting the animal.

I hated Crusoe's relationship with Friday, which was at all points condescending and racist. Enough said.

Crusoe avows Christianity when faced with isolation on a desert island, which might be a point in favor for him since I was raised as a Christian myself. However, he just as easily drops his Christianity when he returns to his comfort zone back with his family in England. This was simply the last straw. ( )

O argumento básico de Robinson Crusoé é universalmente conhecido. Isolado em sua “Ilha do Desespero” (ao largo da atual Venezuela) após um trágico naufrágio, o marujo inglês luta pela sobrevivência valendo-se de todos os escassos meios a seu alcance. Com o tempo e os utensílios recuperados do navio, ele chega a se tornar um competente marceneiro e agricultor, além de pastor de cabras e profundo conhecedor da Bíblia - a única leitura disponível. Sem contato com qualquer ser humano por mais de duas décadas, certo dia Crusoé salva um nativo do assassinato por canibais que haviam aportado numa das praias da ilha, e logo o faz seu criado, dando-lhe o nome de Sexta-Feira. Alguns anos mais tarde, o acaso leva um navio inglês às proximidades da ilha, dando início a um longo conflito com a tripulação amotinada. O livro também conta com uma alentada introdução de John Richetti, professor emérito de literatura inglesa na Universidade Columbia e reconhecido especialista na obra de Daniel Defoe.

As a child I was introduced to the Ladybird version of the book, so was under the misapprehension that this was a children’s novel. It is not, as it deals with themes such as slavery, cannibalism, piracy and survival. The only other novel by Defoe I had read was Moll Flanders, so I probably should have realised this was not going to be a sanitised novel. In Wilkie Collins novel The Moonstone the old butler whenever he was troubled or needed guidance would seek it in the pages of Robinson Crusoe, rather like a moral oracle. I found this curious, surely for a good victorian the Bible would have been the book to turn to. Finally I now understand why, Crusoe is the story of a man who despite appalling circumstance never gives into despair and melancholy, while at the same time remaining resolutely human. Sometimes in novels these great hero’s feel out of reach, like they are set apart, but Crusoe demonstrates that as well as heroism there is also fear and cowardice, humanity and savage violence. While it is certainly a novel about surviving slavery and shipwreck, to leave it at that is to miss its depth, its message of hope that however bad our external circumstances may be we still have the power to make the best of them. ( )

A surprisingly good read, with some exciting passages - though the writing somewhat peters out towards the end of the book. Nevertheless, a classic which is seen as the forerunner modern novel which everybody should read. ( )

“All of our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.”

I read Robinson Crusoe as it is one of the classics, and I could not be certain if I had read it as a child or not. Written by Puritan Englishman Daniel Defoe, many consider this to be the first English novel. It was published in 1719, but set in the 1650s to 1680s. The book was a great success and became one of the most widely published books in history.

The story has since been thought to be based on the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway, who lived for four years on a Pacific island called "Más a Tierra", now part of Chile. It was originally penned under the name Robinson Crusoe and thus mistakenly thought to be a true story.

Robinson leaves Yorkshire as a young man, against his father’s wishes, to go to sea. He encounters a huge storm, is miserable and shipwrecked and swears to never to go to sea again. But after getting drunk with some sailors decides he is born to be a sailor and heads off again. This time he is captured by pirates and forced to become a slave. After a few years of harsh treatment he escapes with a boy called Xury, and despite having had firsthand experience and reason to empathise with the lot of slaves Crusoe decides to make Xury his slave. He sells Xury to the captain of a Portuguese ship and makes his way to Brazil with them where he buys a plantation. Having apparently learnt nothing from his experiences about either sailing or slavery he then makes another voyage to get slaves from Africa for his plantation but is shipwrecked.

Robison finds himself on a deserted island off the coast of Venezuela, probably based on Tobago. He manages to salvage goods off the ship and sets himself to building a dwelling, planting corn, domesticating goats and the like. He also finds a Bible and becomes very religious, repenting for all the sins of his youth. He gains insight into the evils of his former life and behaviour and ponders about whether his castaway life is punishment for his sins, although interestingly never seems to have any regrets about his involvement in slavery, which actually has brought him to this point.

He then discovers “barbarous savages” landing on his island to partake in cannibalistic feasting on their enemies. On one of these visits he manages to free the intended victim, names him Friday, and guess what, makes him a slave. Eventually Robinson and Friday assist a marooned captain to regain his ship from mutineers and return to England.

I would have to say I did enjoy the parts describing Crusoe’s survival and challenges, even though this would have been far more impressive and intriguing if it had actually happened. He did seem relatively fortunate as a castaway to have a ship to plunder for goods and a seemingly endless supply of gunpowder, such that he still had a quantity to give away after 28 years.

On the other hand, although I am used to books from previous eras containing racist and colonial attitudes, and I try to view them in their context, in this instance it was extreme. I have read many other older works of fiction that are nowhere near as flagrantly supportive of slavery and entrenched in their belief in white superiority. In fact not too long after the time this book was authored my children’s ancestors were actively engaged in the anti-slavery movement. I kept on reading, waiting for the moment of insight when he realised that “these barbarous savages” were fellow humans and no better or worse than he, but other than learning to appreciate Friday’s nature, he never makes this quantum shift.

The other thing that was disappointing was the anticlimactic nature of his return to England. There is no description of how he felt, how he was received or anything other than an account of his finances. He goes on to wrap up the significant events of his life in one paltry sentence, "In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all, I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction, and had three children, two sons and one daughter; but my wife dying, and my nephew coming home with good success from a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his importunity, prevailed, and engaged me to go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies; this was in the year 1694.” And off he goes again.

So overall 2.5 stars for me. Respect for penning the first novel, creating the adventure genre, and inspiring the popular imagination about sea-faring voyages, shipwrecks and remote tropical islands. This has spawned many other famous books and films. But the rampant colonialism was a decided negative for me. ( )

Sure to offend those who insist on applying 21st century mores to a novel published in 1719, but for the rest of us it is a rip-roaring good adventure and an interesting glimpse into the 18th century worldview. Nice illustrations too. ( )

I think this is worth reading as a cultural artifact. Crusoe careened around the Atlantic enslaving people, and was then terrified of how he might be treated if he fell into their hands; his profound religious awakening and intimate relationship with an indigenous person (whose name he never asks) did not lead to any change in his views; his highest achievement as a person once enslaved himself was to become the feudal lord of a colony half-populated by more kidnapped and enslaved people. Crusoe is just face-meltingly abhorrent, and by the end I'd convinced myself that it was a satire of the English mindset of the time... Maybe it wasn't then, but it is now.

I liked the parts about danger and setting up systems of food production, though.

I hadn't read this since grade school, and was pleasantly surprised at how well it read. A real classic, the only flaws being a somewhat contrived ending. But the detail ... wow. A look back in time indeed. ( )

definately a book of it's time (white englishman is a higher moral ethical and valuable animal than both black men and the spanish/portuguese), but interesting to read nevertheless ( )

I'm actually sorry I read this book. I always had good impressions of it, without ever having read it. Now I have, and there's no going back.

I'm not sure just how much the views of Robinson Crusoe reflect those of the general public at the time it was written, but I suspect they match fairly well. And Robinson Crusoe is a arrogant, racist, misogynist idiot.

Think I'm exaggerating? He makes it off the island, but leaves some 'Spaniards' stranded there. On the very last page of the book he sends 'five cows, three of them being big with calf, some sheep, and some hogs' back to the island for the inhabitants, along with 'seven women, being such as I found proper for service, or for wives to such as would take them.'

Early on in the book, he is taken by 'Moors' that force him into slavery. When he makes his mistake, he is careful to make sure he takes a fellow captive along to serve as his own slave boy.

The book is rife with stuff like that. When Crusoe rescues a Spanish castaway from cannibals he introduces himself, but when he rescues a native from the same fate, he tells the native his name will be Friday, and Friday is to call him 'Master.' Apparently Friday thinks that's perfect, and goes out of his way to become a perfect slave.

Hell, he ends up on the island as part of a failed attempt to become a Brazillian slave trader!

There's only two beings in the book who have a name - Robinson Crusoe, and Pol, the parrot. His wife and children get a lot less prose than the parrot, and no, you never learn their names either. Everyone else is described and never named, and they all think Crusoe can do no wrong. Apparently only Robinson Crusoe ever saw fit to criticize Robinson Crusoe.

The parts of the book I actually enjoyed were descriptions of how he performed all the tasks required to stay alive, and yet they were always ridiculously easy. Never once does he not find fresh water within minutes of looking for it, and although many things supposedly take months and months to complete, he only ever mentions the first couple of days of his labour at most. He never gets hurt, gets sick only once and shoots all sorts of people without ever getting so much as a scratch.

All of this mess is apparently because he wouldn't listen to his father and ran away. It's appropriate for God to kick him in the teeth repeatedly and kill off everyone around him over and over again until he gets the message. And even then the good Christian's morals wander around like a lifeboat in one of the many storms. About the only decision taken for Christian reasons that stuck was not moving back to Brazil because he wasn't sure about being Roman Catholic!

The best part of this book? The binding fell apart as I read it so it's not worth keeping or selling now I'm done with it.

Maybe I'm missing the point. If it's there, it's not worth digging for. If you haven't read this one, skip it and watch an episode of Gilligan's Island instead. ( )

A well written if horrifically colonial story (bro gets shipwrecked on the way to buy slaves). I felt a sort of debt to read this considering it is the "first novel" and all that. The idea behind my reading of it, as with most classic literature, being a sort of investigative enquiry into the ideas that inform (and have been continually preserved by) the society we exist in today.

The seeds of what would become the civilisation we live in today are all in here. Extractionism, racism, expansionism and all the other 'isms'; as well the thorough and almost cultish obsession with personal responsibility. This is interestingly built on through the personal relationship he builds with God throughout the novel. There's a sort of protestant mercantalist spirit that pervades the book. The rise of protestantism of course being tied to the rise of capitalism.

All in all there's a lot to unpack in this book. It's a very interesting exposition of European but particularly British attitudes towards the mission of their civilisation (this being colonialism under the guise of christianisation and 'civlising'). Best read as a historical document rather than as a novel. ( )

Sei ancora
sicuro di volermi
accompagnare in
Inghilterra
Venerdì?

Sicuro.
Ma questo
costume è...
scomodo.

Anch'io
non ci
sono più
abituato,
Venerdì.

(pagina 48)

( )

While on a 17th-century voyage from Brazil to Africa, Robinson Crusoe's ship is severely damaged in a storm. He discovers upon gathering his wits on the shore of a Caribbean island that he is the sole survivor from the wreck and lucky to be alive. He also learns to his surprise that the ship and all its supplies is still in sight, foundering a tantalizingly reachable distance from shore. This is the eponymous story of Crusoe's nearly three decades surviving on the island, most of it in utter solitude.

In terms of engagement, it took a concerning few chapters for the story to get interesting, so I was relieved when it finally picked up steam. My first thought was that these were the most fortunate circumstances of any shipwreck I've ever heard of — Crusoe was able to salvage just about everything from the ship but the kitchen sink, to the point where the amount of supplies he started with was almost laughable. His detailed descriptions of his explorations and the things he built, created and cobbled together to further his survival were the most interesting parts of the narrative, although I couldn't believe it took him 11 years to start a herd of goats. The book's biggest shortcomings are when he goes off on lengthy theological tangents regarding what his plight might symbolize in the eyes of God and other pointless musings to the detriment of the plot. My eyes glazed over when the proselytizing got to be a bit much, and so I wanted to high-five Friday when he challenged Crusoe with the question, "If God is more powerful than the Devil, why doesn't he destroy evil once and for all?" (Friday, this is a question skeptics have been asking for centuries.) Crusoe was overall an interesting but occasionally unreliable narrator, at one point suggesting that he had no way to defend himself from "beasts," while having all variety of firearms, bladed weapons and barrelsful of gunpowder in his arsenal. Though he comes to the realization that the life he's living now is a better and a happier one than any he had lived previously, he doggedly continues to look for means to escape the island (one can suppose that what he really misses is social interaction). A few aspects that are particularly cringey to a 21st-century reader include the rampant racism (Crusoe takes no action against "savages" cannibalizing victims until a victim is shown to be European — we can't have that!), the portrayal of Friday's broken English, and animal cruelty. For a 300-year-old book this classic wasn't bad, and the language is still very readable/accessible. It's worth a read, with the added bonus of literary/pop culture awareness. One star removed for, after all we'd been through, an anticlimactic ending. ( )

This is an amazing book. More than three hundred years after it was written it's still worth reading. Yes it's full of practices we no longer consider acceptable. Yes it does not condemn things everyone today condemns. If it had nothing to offer we would clearly have written it off years ago, but it does. Yes in some sense it's pandering to a mindset that thankfully is long gone. Yes it's not realistic. If you need those things this is not the book for you.

This is the ultimate white man's fantasy. It's the story of overcoming, even triumphing, over the worst things life can throw at you. Even when deprived of life's necessities such as clothes, food, shelter, companionship, support, Crusoe overcomes all. Even if immediately overwhelmed he still manages to think things through and come up with increasingly sophisticated responses to the needs and situations he initially thought unsurmountable. While he is able to obtain a few essentials from shipwrecks, he needs to make do with what he can make from his surroundings. He needs shovels and spades so he finds hard wood trees and carves the shapes he needs. Modern day survivalists have lessons to learn here. Crusoe is clearly a man's man. He even discovers gold and silver on a shipwreck. He has little use for it in his current situation.

But he also conquers the more subjective world. He admits the flaws in his life that he committed in his non-reflective past. He turns to the Bible and sees he's been redeemed. Life is good. He just needs to put more faith in Jesus. He becomes a happy man. He's no longer afraid of the cannibals he's observed coming to his island paradise. After 25 years he discovers cannibals have brought a prisoner who they intend to eat. He frees the prisoner who becomes his devoted man Friday. He teaches Fridays to become a Christian. Once again his faith in his Provider has been rewarded. ( )

A wonderfully entertaining story. Much darker and adult than modern Hollywood and politically correct society would have us think. This is a great story and sadly one that is rarely seen in school libraries anymore. It seems to have fallen into that “offensive to some” niche. Loneliness, doubt, self-discovery and the desire to understand why our stars align the way they do and in what manner we should…or should not accept their formation. Defoe comes across with insight and brilliance to tell us the story of Mr. Robinson Crusoe, a young man who appears to have more bad luck than good. Stranded on an island for nearly three decades our protagonist suffers, lives and learns and still has the uncanny ability to be human. ( )

The only class I did at University that dealt with a period of time before the 19th century was an entire class on Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Other than that, I never touched 16th, 17th, or 18th literature. Not that I didn’t want to, but I could never take up those classes along others I really wanted to do, or compulsory classes I had to take from my major and minor. So I never did read Robinson Crusoe until I went to Germany for a few days.

So everyone’s heard of this book – a guy is the sole survivor of a devastating shipwreck, hundreds of miles away from England, and is on the island for almost three decades and learns how to look after himself in the process. It’s been parodied a number of times, and the most famous one is probably Cast Away (with Tom Cruise!). It’s a classic, and I enjoyed reading it…

BUT.

Oh yeah, there’s always a but.

Main critique number 1) WHY the hell is this book not split into chapters? It’s literally blocks of text with no breaks. NO. CHAPTERS. It was very difficult to keep up the concentration with no chapters.

Main critique number 2) Robinson Crusoe feels like such a Mary Sue kind of character. He is So Perfect and So Good at surviving. He always manages to have enough ammunition, or enough food, or always manages to solve the problem in enough time. It’s honestly sickening how he manages to survive for literally thirty years without a hitch. Even his problems turn into minor inconveniences, because he solves them all so quickly. I get being a survivalist, but I’m sure that mentality didn’t exist at the time. And besides, even if he was a survivalist, he wouldn’t have managed all he did on that island in real life at all. Reading this book felt like I was living out Defoe’s epic fantasy where he was asking himself ‘What would I do if I was abandoned on an island?!’. The detail in it is so so so extensive it’s almost boring.

Main critique number 3) I get it, the 17th century was a completely different time. The British were assholes colonizing every corner of the planet. They thought that everything they did was awesome – their language, their religion – and that anywhere they stepped was theirs to claim from the ‘savages’. I get it, I do. But wow I am so glad we’re past that time nowadays. The way Robinson talks about Friday – as if he is lesser than him in every single way because he’s not British – is nauseating. He teaches him English which, fine, I get it, you want someone to communicate with. And I understand the aversion to cannibalism because hey, I’d be freaked out too. But telling him that his God isn’t real, and shitting on his religion like he did is a shit move. This novel exudes the British Colonial Ideal and it seriously made me so glad that we’ve moved past that time now. What really got to me int his regard was the way that Robinson talks about Friday as ‘his man’, and how he makes Friday call him ‘Master’. It just does not go down well with me at all.

Overall, my final rating, because of my bias, is a 3/5. Mostly as well because of how difficult it is to read from a stylistic point of view – what with the no chapters thing and all – this book is a bit of a British Colonialist Wet Dream. And if there’s anything the Maltese hate, it’s the British Colonial mentality. ( )

True classics are books that you read long ago, but after years you still remember it with pleasure and woundn't hesitate to read again. This is a classic in my opioion.

A young man is the sole survivor of a shipwreck and finds himself stranded on a deserted island (or is it?). He is able to secure supplies from the shipwreck, and begins building shelters. Other natives occassionally come to the island, but as he watches them, he decides to remain hidden. Finally another man comes to the island and they join forces, but of course Robinson treats him as a servant (which will probably get the book banned in today's political climate). They work together and eventually they are do get rescued. ( )

O clássico de Defoe é na verdade um pouco chato, uma vez que obviamente sabemos a história de antemão. Pois por mais bem conduzida que seja a narrativa, Robson não deixa de ser um europeu médio, inglês, envolto na ideia de que seus pares são civilizados e que a religião deve ser de algum modo importante, vendo pouco na ilha e nas suas (des)venturas que não a interrupção de uma vida de conquista pelo trabalho, e observando seus impulsos aventureiros como também sujeitas a serem conquistadas pela civilidade. No fim, a grande contribuição de Defoe é ter modelado o livro de Tournier, "Sexta-feira e os limbos do pacífico", esse sim uma obra genial, muito embora derivativa. ( )

Absolutely a classic and worth reading. I found it very difficult to put down. Full of life lessons as well. Enjoy! ( )

I would rank the first half of the book as three stars and the rest two stars, but overall the quality of my experience was "okay," so I'm siding with the two stars.

The first half of the book is amusing. It's a seventeenth century stereotype of a male in his teens and twenties, off to do all things exciting and thoughtless, over and over. It's a shame Crusoe isn't responsible for so many ships sinking on him--it'd be more funny if I could blame him for that as well instead of bad luck. But yeah, he's so much a walking stereotype (woohoo for appropriate cliche) in a different century that I embrace the irony.

However, as a whole, I don't find the story particularly exciting. More than anything I had an active curiosity that saw me to the end, something from within instead of without, so the book or Defoe can't take credit. My attitude as I read was, "Huh, okay, ah, okay," more in acknowledgment than judgment. I had a few brief sarcastic, "Sure..."s when the Lisbon sea captain or the situation with the plantation were involved because it seems too convenient. I give myself credit for conquering Robinson Crusoe and welcome the next book on my list. ( )

¡Sí, estos son mis libros de la niñez! … Y en éste, y otros volúmenes a los que reúno bajo EDICIONES PEUSER, deseo rendir un humilde homenaje en primer lugar, a esta gran editorial que iluminó con literatura, a una innumerable cantidad de familias (como la mía), de conocimiento y pasión por la vida.
Y vaya también las gracias a mi padre por su visión, al acercarme estas joyas literarias a mis ojos anhelantes de colosales mundos nuevos, y despacharlos colmados de viajes… entre simples baldosas.
( )

beautiful illustrations

A man with wanderlust encounters a series of escalating misfortunes.

1/4 (Bad).

I gave up after 40 pages. I haven't even gotten to the really racist stuff yet (I suspect), but already the attitude towards slavery is too much. The style is readable but uniformly void of personality, and it's pretty clear how the story is going to unfold, so I'm confident that I'm not missing anything.

(Aug. 2022) ( )

Three centuries and two years have elapsed since Robinson Crusoe knocked all the wigs off Georgian England. If his initial popularity and enduring fame is anything to go off by, well then his most magnetic point is this: he's that one lucky salty son of a bitch we all want to be.

Crusoe flees a dying father and overbearing family; gets shipwrecked; is captured by pirates; escapes with a slave; sells the slave; gets shipwrecked again while trying to become a slaver (comeuppance is a bitch) and is forced to live on an island in solitude for 24 years.

As if all this isn't enough, he builds himself a mini fortress; becomes a hunter-gatherer; discovers cannibals; frees a captive he names Friday who he converts to Christianity and then he gets off the island after settling mutineers upon it.

At the end, he flees a dying wife and their young children. So besides being a proficient survivor, savior of souls and semi-proficient slaver he isn't my beau ideal of a family man that's for sure.

Defoe writes like Crusoe's morality; long, winded and always cleaning up it's possessor's sins. On the other hand ,if you want to get philosophical, Crusoe establishes that no matter the degree of solitude; one cannot escape the influences of their society. Why else would he thump the Bible to Friday?

Four stars because it made me think. ( )

There are a handful of novels that fascinated me in my early days of reading. This is one of them - I remember being mesmerized by the events of Robinson's life as narrated by Defoe. His creation of a new world on the island where he lived for years. The amazing feeling when he realized there was another person on the island and his ingenuity in developing a new life for himself. I think it was the first adventure book that I ever read and it spurred my interest in reading true tales of adventure ever since, ( )