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Jan 27, 2012

Shovelmonkey1 rated it:

August 1651
Dear Diary,
Woo hoo! Run away to sea at last! Mum and Dad didn't want me to go but honestly, what's the worst that can happen? So far I'm loving life on the ocean wave and have only been a little bit sea sick. Anyway it's Bye bye Hull, hello Honolulu!
Yours, Robinson

January 1653
Dear Diary,
Sorry it's been so long. There was a minor incident with a shipwreck and just when I'd managed to find passage on another boat some pirates turned up and I end More...

17 comments like (21 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Melissa rated it:

This is one of those books that really serves to remind a modern audience of why we should kill whitey. Robinson Crusoe is the story of a young man with atrociously bad luck who, unfortunately for any shipmates he ever has, suffers from an extreme case of wanderlust. Every ship he gets onto sinks, but he just keeps getting onto them. Even after he's got a nice, successful plantation of his own, he decides he's just GOT to get on ANOTHER ship to -- get this -- procure himself some slaves. It More...

40 comments like (49 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2010

James rated it:

Robinson Crusoe is worthy of the title classic. Published in 1719, Daniel Defoe's best known novel is a fascinating look in to the European mindset of that period. Superstitious at times, religious occasionally, painfully colonialist in perspective, the book is a broad discussion of the meaning of life through the lens of knowledge in the early 18th century.

In addition to the entertaining story line, the book is chock-full of wisdom. I dog-eared quite a few pages so that I could ref More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Kristen rated it:

I know, I know... Robinson Crusoe is a book full of cultural relativism and unconscious cruelty. He's an imperialist bastard. I know.

But it is exactly these elements, plus the fact that it is one hell of an adventure story, that made me really like this book. Yes, it is absolutely provoking. But it also thinks deeply on religion, economy, and self. And it's an adventure. So while in some ways, the story/viewpoint/author are extremely distasteful, it is a very satisfying read.

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2008

Monsieurboule rated it:

Hoo-boy!
I'm surprised and amazed and dismayed by the ex post facto muy-contempo correct-nosity readings below...shouldn't be, I guess, but am.
Gee whillikers, kids, uhm, here's one of the great social and, perhaps even more, spiritual documents of Western Civ, and it's a ripping read that declared ongoing archetypes, and it's getting dissed for...for being a bit blind to its own time. Which of us won't end up wishing for at least that when our tombstone gets knocked over?
'sides More...

1 comment like (16 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2010

Krista the Krazy Kataloguer rated it:

I enjoyed the adventure of the novel, the way Crusoe invented things and figured out ways to survive and improve his lot. Reminded me of Gilligan's Island!! Some of the descriptions were a bit wordy, but that was the style of the time. I also enjoyed reading his introspections, and his thoughts about religion and God. As the notes in the back of the Barnes & Noble edition said, no one before Defoe had ever written a novel like that, so Defoe had full rein to explore how someone would react p More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2008

Amanda rated it:

I've read some awful books this year (and wonderful as well!), and this is definitely on the shortlist of Worst Books Ever Read. Amanda had warned me I wasn't going to like it, friends who saw I was reading it pleaded Why?! and I knew it was coming-- but guh. Culturally insensitive religious propaganda that rarely, if ever, verges on being a well-written adventure story. While I understand that this was perhaps the 'way things were' back in Defoe's time, and that as one of the first 'novels' it More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 07, 2011

Jason rated it:

Five stars for the first 2/3, two stars for the rest.

I thought most of this book was gripping. The early adventures are exciting, and shot through with the dread of ominous prophesy. The infamous long sections on the island where nothing happens and we get detailed logistics of house-building and tool-making... I found these all fascinating. The industriousness and cleverness Crusoe displays as he turns whatever he can to his meager advantage are inspiring-- literally, I was inspire More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2009

Andy rated it:

It's really sad that people judge books from the 17th century from their 21st century politically-correct perspective. You don't have to agree with Defoe's worldview and religious beliefs to like the book. I'm repulsed by Homer's beliefs but I know his works deserve to be classics.

People who think this book is boring probably think hikes through majestic mountains or quiet afternoons in a beautiful garden are boring. This book is slow at times. But the slowest parts are the best. More...

0 comments like (17 people liked it)

Oct 30, 2008

Tamra rated it:

There can not be many classics WORSE than this book. It might be decently written. And it might be a classic. For that I'll give it 2 stars instead of 1. But it's boring! I really don't know why this is a classic.

But you won't waste much time reading it. It'll take you 3 hours to read it, tops. This isn't really a book but more of a pamphlet.

HOW TO WRITE YOUR OWN ROBINSON CRUSOE:
#1 Create the start of a plot line that sounds very interesting. For instance, More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 28, 2008

Kathlene rated it:

Okay, I know this would not be most people's first "go-to" book, but it's considered by some critics (of these kinds of things) to be the first incarnation of the English novel as we know it.

If you love novels, then it's great to see how Daniel DeFoe kick-started this genre. We've got fiction pretending to be a true story, adventure, a hero as an every day sort with a moral failing, and an obsession with both large and petty things. And then there is the spiritial aspe More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 27, 2008

David rated it:

I read the book, Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe. It talks about an English youth who gets shipwrecked on an island off the coast of South America. At first he is clinging onto his very survival but pretty soon he rescues supplies from the ship, which is unusable but mostly intact and starts a living. He lives in a cave but in a few years, makes a hut in the beautiful forest on the other side where there is lots of edible harmless plants and animals. After over two decades he rescues a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2008

Cole rated it:

An adventurous, action-packed novel about a young man and the rest of the crew having no choice but to abandon a ship during a brutal storm. Only one man survives. His name is Robinson Crusoe. Struggling to survive he has to make a shelter, and scavenge everything he can from the torn up ship. Luckily, the island that he landed on had not only food but also fresh water. As he had to make everything from scratch, he found that he was an exceptional craftsman when he was making things for his hut More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2010

Harun Harahap rated it:

MEMBOSANKAN

Saat membaca buku ini, beberapa kali saya tertidur karena lelah dan bosan. 90 persen lebih buku ini hanya berupa tulisan deskripsi dengan sedikit dialog. Pada awalnya, Saya membayangkan kisah petualang Robinson yang terdampar dipulau tak berpenghuni ini seperti film Cast Away yang dibintangi oleh Tom Hanks. Ternyata makin bertambahnya halaman yang saya baca, makin bertambah pula kebosanan yang saya dapatkan!

Kisahnya sungguh datar tanpa emosi, terlalu banyak pen More...

16 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 22, 2011

James rated it:

'It happen'd one Day about Noon going towards my Boat, I was exceeding surpriz'd with the Print of a Man's naked Foot on the Shore, which was very plain to be seen in the Sand: I stood like one Thunder-struck ...'

Robinson Crusoe is one of the most famous adventure stories ever written. The account of a sailor shipwrecked on a desert island for twenty-eight years, it is also a tale of mythic proportions, an allegory, and a spiritual autobiography. I remember being fascinated with th More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2009

Michael rated it:

I liked this book. It was a little hard to read at first since it was written in the 1700's but I quickly got used to it. This book contains a lot of philosophy. It contained a lot of thoughts about God and his perceived interaction with his children, especially how he treats those that offend him. There is also an underlying theme that keeps coming back that we should be thankful for what we have because our situations could be worse. Another theme the book deals with is that we don't need much More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2008

Leah added it

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2010

Becca rated it:

The actual story was quite interesting and some of his harangues about God were quite interesting and made me think about my relationship with Him and beliefs about him, but you've got to know that 28 years of it can be quite boring after a while. After I had read the same thought for the sixteenth time I wanted to just put it aside and finish another year, but I persevered and the story ended well. I do have to say that seeing his circumstances and bad luck over a lifetime made me grateful for More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 17, 2008

Candi rated it:

This is a big book, it may take me even longer then David Copperfield.
I read it, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. The first few chapters before he gets to the island are a little slow, but it's a great literary set up everything comes back around. This book is written from a pro-slavery standpoint so that's a little weird, but that is the way colonialists felt so it would be more strange if it wasn't. Once Crusoe gets on the island he is awesome and compelling, no going crazy More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2011

Ian added it

One of those books I'd always wanted to read but never really knew much about. I've read a few of the other reviews on this, and loads of people seem to make points I totally agree with.

For a start, there are parts in which you just feel Defoe is lecturing us on the virtues of being a good Christian, and specifically not a Catholic but an Anglican. I found this extremely annoying, but understood it to be probably the driving force behind his writing the book in the first place, and I had to kee More...

0 comments like

Oct 09, 2010

Joseph rated it:

OK, so I thought I'd read this classic because it's supposed to be wonderful and all that.

It's in old English, so it's hard to read. But I could get through that with enough effort.

I didn't finish the book.

I'll never finish this book.

I found it totally, utterly, unbearably, BORING!!! It doesn't matter what happens, how wonderful or bad it is, there's not much emotion at all. And I never *cared*! After about 150 pages, I realised I couldn't care More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2009

Christine rated it:

I absolutely loved this book. You think of this being a boy's adventure story and it is but oh so much more than ever a boy could glean from this book. These are the kinds of things that are said in this book: "I have since often observed how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, -- namely, that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not ashamed of the action for which More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2009

Leftbanker rated it:

I just read a Spanish translation of this book. It is something I probably would never read in English, I don't know why. It's nice to have an iconic work like this under my belt for no other reason than to have a firmer grasp of how the novel developed in English. More than anything, this book was a great vocabulary builder for me in Spanish. I love books about sailing so this novel pretty much brought me up to speed with that genre in Spanish. I have to admit that I didn't even realize this wa More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2012

Julien rated it:

This is a great book, even a classic, as some people like to call it, but I was really disappointed by the ending. I won't go into any details, even though I could use the spoiler option, but I was expecting more from that part of the book that is more crucial than anything. Sure, the journey is important, but, unlike in life, if you don't have a good ending, especially from a book that presents someone going through a transformational phase, through a journey of learning and understanding not o More...

0 comments like

Jan 02, 2012

Logan rated it:

Robinson Crusoe

By Logan Kelley

What if you were left-for-dead on some random island and had to take desperate measures to survive? Well, this happened to Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe was an Englishman from the town of York. He was committed to doing whatever his father wants him to do but gives in to temptation and embarks on a ship going to London with a friend. When he and his friend nearly die, he still decides to be a merchant for a ship l More...

0 comments like

Nov 26, 2011

Thurston rated it:

I believe I read the version that was The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Illustrated Junior Library) with illustrations by Lynd Ward. Overall, this worked okay for me and my nine year old boys. The beginning (in this version) was a bit verbose, and prosaically preachy. With Robinson's father encouraging him to shoot for the middle in life. And Robinson ignoring his father's imploring and paying the price, felt like some foreshadowing to me, if not my sons.

Re More...

0 comments like

Oct 23, 2011

Anna rated it:

Overall, I thought this book was just okay. I found it easy for my mind to wander, because there wasn't a constant image. However, I did find it to have a powerful survival and change of heart/mind approach, in which I enjoyed.

My favorites part was when Crusoe saw the naked footprint. From right there in the story, I knew the tables were finally turning. I loved that it made me think immensely of whom the footprint belonged to.

My least favorite part was the long period More...

0 comments like

Oct 17, 2011

Austin rated it:

Book Review: Robinson Crusoe (Bantam Classic version)

By: Austin Wistisen

Imagine sailing across the sea for months on end, traveling to many diverse places, living in prosperity and peace and then, out of the blue, one day, shipwrecking on a seemingly deserted, uninhabited island for multiple decades, not knowing if you’d ever get off it and constantly wondering what challenge or trial would arise next. The author of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe, an English writer, pamphl More...

0 comments like

Oct 12, 2011

Lois rated it:

It’s hard to believe I haven’t read this before, especially during my brief stint of “Classics only” reading during high school. However, I was a Robinson Crusoe virgin, it’s true. I went into this novel expecting something along the lines of a Robert Louis Stevenson novel and unfortunately, that is not what this was like at all. Granted, it was written 100 years earlier than “Treasure Island.”
This novel follows Robinson Crusoe as he runs from home and looks for a life on the sea. His fath More...

0 comments like

Sep 26, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Alright, well I am going to respond to those who think that the only way you could not enjoy this book is if you are looking back from a privileged 21st century point of view and judging the actions of our less socially conscious ancestors. I read this book as a part of my 18th century literature class, so I have been reading a lot of novels written around the same time and with a number of the same themes and I have been able to enjoy many of them despite some uncomfortable and shocking moments More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)