From the Bookshelf of Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)…

Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe

Start date: August 6, 2013

Finish date: August 31, 2013

Discussion: Old School Classics, Pre-1915

Discussion leader: Trisha

Why we're reading this: Old School Classic Group Read, August 2013
[close] Old School Classic Group Read, August 2013

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 484 topics — 22,105 comments total

Old School Classics, Pre-1915

This topic has been closed to new comments.

* Finding Old School Book Threads
By Bob , Short Story Classics · 2 posts · 390 views

last updated Jan 31, 2024 06:17PM

Cousin Bette - Spoilers
By Sara , New School Classics · 29 posts · 54 views

last updated Nov 10, 2025 06:46AM

showing 10 of 64 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jul 16, 2025 Franky rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, classics, kindle, 2025-reading-challenge, man-vs-nature, survival

The general influence of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is unprecedented, as it has inspired so many retellings, spin offs, adaptations, and the like of Crusoe’s narrative or the “person stranded” scenario played out in some form or manner. The influence of this book has even extended into other genres as well.

It’s easy to see why, because there are so many “what if” questions that this novel raises into the reader’s head as we see Crusoe’s predicament: What if we were in the same predicament? What if The general influence of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is unprecedented, as it has inspired so many retellings, spin offs, adaptations, and the like of Crusoe’s narrative or the “person stranded” scenario played out in some form or manner. The influence of this book has even extended into other genres as well.

It’s easy to see why, because there are so many “what if” questions that this novel raises into the reader’s head as we see Crusoe’s predicament: What if we were in the same predicament? What if I had to deal with isolation and survival? How would I handle this? How would I keep my wits about me and maintain a calm demeanor despite the direst of conditions? Each reader probably thinks about some variation of these questions at some point.

The writing style here is dense, but this is to be expected as it is from another time period. The prose can be a bit difficult, with some sentences literally going on for nearly an entire page, but I found that a good audiobook really enhances the reading experience (at least, in my opinion it did the trick). It’s also a little jarring how some editions of the novel do not have chapter delineations, but luckily my Kindle version did, and it made things go a little smoother.

As far as the story, our protagonist here makes a few ill-fated and unwise decisions early on, ignoring the warnings given to him by his father and another authority figure, instead pursuing his aspiration to be a man of the sea. However, when he pushes this goal one too many times, he winds up stranded on an island when the vessel he is in crashes near the shore.

As the reader will become aware, Crusoe is a very flawed character, yet there are some definite redeeming qualities to him as well. I think there are definite points where he sees his own flaws and shortcomings and turns to faith—which he had largely ignored up until then—to guide him. He also is quite remorseful for turning his back on those wiser who tried to warn him and guide him early on. Obviously, he has quite a few antiquated stances ( a product of the times) that will be hard for the modern reader to swallow. However, I do think there a realness and authenticity to his character overall.

It was interesting to see how he had to learn the ropes of becoming a self-sufficient person on the island and learn through trial and error many methods to survive, such as providing for his food, shelter, etc. He definitely must make many errors in order to figure out the right way to go about it.

In the end, I liked a lot about the novel, but was just kind of put off by certain elements and scenes that bugged me. For instance, I felt like there were some parts that were just non-essential to the story or just flat silly or ridiculous. I didn’t care for how some things were presented as well, and I thought the ending portions of the novel were very anticlimactic while we are just waiting for the novel to get to the finish line.

I had a hard time deciding between 3 or 4 stars, so I’ll go with 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3. (This is when I wish there were half stars).

...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jun 13, 2014 RebeccaErGlad MegetGlad rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own

Two stars seems drastic, I know, but I didn't like this book.

Even after I started reading it as fantasy, all that religion is nauseating and - worse - boring. God this, Providence that. I usually like "survival in the wild" stories, but this was exhausting. It could've had a certain trance-like quality with the excruciating listing of exactly what happened, and what he did, but the language simply didn't do it for me. And I often fall in love with "old english" when I read books like Jane Eyre, ...more

Like · see review