Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Robinson Crusoe
    Robinson Crusoe
    Robinson Crusoe
    Audiobook12 hours

    Robinson Crusoe

    Written by Daniel Defoe

    Narrated by John Lescault

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Robinson Crusoe flees Britain on a ship after killing his friend over the love of Mary. A fierce ocean storm wrecks his ship and leaves him stranded by himself on an uncharted island. Left to fend for himself, Crusoe seeks out a tentative survival on the island, until he meets Friday, a tribesman whom he saves from being sacrificed. Initially, Crusoe is thrilled to finally have a friend, but he has to defend himself against the tribe who uses the island to sacrifice tribesman to their gods. During time their relationship changes from master-slave to a mutual respected friendship despite their difference in culture and religion.

    Daniel Defoe lived between 1660 and 1731, a period of much historical change in England. The rapidly changing economic and political circumstances in England helped create a vibrant middle class that was mercantilist, protestant, desirous of political power, and hungry for cultural life. Defoe was born into such a middle class family, the son of a fairly wealthy tallow chandler. He received an excellent education and lived a varied and eventful life. He worked, often at the same time, as a spy, hosier, journalist, political pamphleteer, and businessman. Defoe, however, is best remembered for his literary work. Regarded by many as the father of the English novel, Defoe published his masterpiece, Robinson Crusoe, in 1719. Three years later he cemented his reputation with the novel Moll Flanders.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSpotify Audiobooks
    Release dateJan 1, 2001
    ISBN9781467610513
    Author

    Daniel Defoe

    Daniel Defoe was born at the beginning of a period of history known as the English Restoration, so-named because it was when King Charles II restored the monarchy to England following the English Civil War and the brief dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell. Defoe’s contemporaries included Isaac Newton and Samuel Pepys.

    More audiobooks from Daniel Defoe

    Related to Robinson Crusoe

    Related audiobooks

    YA Action & Adventure For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Seven Books I’ll Never Read

      Aug 7, 2018

      Seven Books I’ll Never Read
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tolkien’s Watercolors

      Mar 1, 2019

      Tolkien’s Watercolors
      1 min read

    • Article

      Dune: Science Fiction’s Answer To Lord Of The Rings

      Oct 18, 2021

      If science fiction has an answer to fantasy’s The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien’s epic saga of the battle to defeat the Dark Lord, Sauron – then Frank Herbert’s Dune has to be a strong contender. Published in 1965, it is the story of the desert pla

      7 min read

    • Article

      Unlearnable Lessons on My Father’s Deathbed

      Mar 21, 2017

      I was at my father’s side much of the time in his final weeks, a witness to both the gifts and miseries of being near death. Nurses came and went, patient, long-suffering. They sat beside him for hours at a time, dousing spongy lollipops in water and

      5 min read

    • Article

      Collins Ferry Landing

      Jul 1, 2020

      for my father Only rivers bottom out like this.Only rivers bottom out with this kind of conviction.Not humans, or, at least, not humans asindisputably human as you were,trapped in consciousness’s surplus, exilic,animalized absurdity, writhing in its

      5 min read

    • Article

      Sir Kenneth Branagh

      Jan 17, 2022

      Sir Kenneth Branagh
      5 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      My story Remembering Bob

      Jun 17, 2020

      My story Remembering Bob
      6 min read

    • Article

      My story Remembering Bob

      Jun 17, 2020

      My story Remembering Bob
      6 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      Kalahari CLOSET

      Jun 15, 2022

      Kalahari CLOSET
      4 min read

    • Article

      THE BLACK SPIDER Part Two

      Oct 30, 2019

      THE BLACK SPIDER Part Two
      25 min read

    • Article

      A Brand-new ending

      Jan 29, 2022

      A Brand-new ending
      7 min read

    • Article

      Found At Sea

      Jan 28, 2020

      Found At Sea
      6 min read

    • Article

      Steven Pinker

      Oct 24, 2022

      Steven Pinker
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Chip Off The Old Block

      Jun 5, 2022

      A Chip Off The Old Block
      9 min read

    • Article

      Learning To Walk

      Oct 28, 2019

      Learning To Walk
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Sound Of Silence

      Sep 19, 2023

      The Sound Of Silence
      11 min read

    • Article

      To Kill a Horse

      Aug 11, 2022

      To Kill a Horse
      16 min read

    • Article

      Family Man

      Apr 15, 2020

      Family Man
      5 min read

    • Article

      Welcome to Deep Shtetl

      Nov 1, 2021

      My mother likes to tell the story of how I spoiled my dad’s birthday surprise. When I was a toddler, a new kosher café opened in the neighborhood, and she decided to get my father something from there to celebrate. But as soon as we got home, I dashe

      3 min read

    • Article

      Justice

      Mar 15, 2018

      I had been told that the interviewer was waiting for me outside in the hotel garden. The muffled oceanic roar of traffic rose steadily from the nearby road. She was sitting alone on a bench amid the raw planted beds and network of gravel paths, gazin

      22 min read

    • Article

      Exhaling

      Dec 7, 2021

      Around me are fifty or so men, in whose company I will sit and be silent for ten days. I eye them discreetly, wondering who among them is going through a crisis. Who, like me, has a family. Who’s single, who’s been dumped, who’s poor or unhappy. Who’

      52 min read

    • Article

      The Courage To Be Happy

      Feb 1, 2023

      MARRIAGE and columns have this in common: you tend to repeat yourself. More than once in these pages, I have quoted the New Yorker’s legendary film critic Pauline Kael. After President Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972 she wrote: ‘I live in a rather

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Change Takes Place

      Oct 28, 2019

      A Change Takes Place
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Robinson Crusoe

    3.5/5

    139 ratings125 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      So first off I should say that I skimmed the last 150 pages of Robinson Crusoe. I enjoyed the part about him stranded on the island and learning to survive. I found all of the travels afterwards tedious and boring. I've often heard that saying that the more you travel the more you notice how alike people are rather than their differences. Not so for Crusoe. In the beginning he seems pretty accepting of everyone, then as he turns to religion he spreads the word of God, but by the end he is attempting to burn towns of "savages" and "heathens" and destroy their idols. Also, one more annoyance in this book was the use of the word viz. over and over again.
    • 3/5
      Started out quite interesting - then made the mistake of reading the historical basis for the story before finishing (Selkirk's Island). With the illusion shattered, I couldn't get back to the adventure with any gusto. :(
    • 2/5
      This is one of those books that is normally read in childhood that I just never got around to, that being said, I'm not sorry I skipped it as a child. I can't believe this book is considered a children's classic. It promotes slavery as a way of life, discusses lifestyles of cannibals, and overly promotes religion. I could over look all of those things given that the book was written in 1719, and would have been common conceptions, but seriously, this is the stuff of my childhood nightmares.

      The author has Crusoe killing cats to keep the population down, drowning kittens, enslaving a man that he was obliged to save. It wont give me nightmares... But I can't say I've enjoyed this book.
    • 4/5
      This book blew me away! I was amazed how relevant it was to present time. It was not dusty/stuffy at all. I guess I was expecting Swiss Family Robinson or something. Instead I got this wonderful story of a man wrestling with his faith. Way.Cool.
    • 2/5
      This book is very very slow. It is classic, but the type of classic that is only for a few excited readers that are not afraid of a long winter evenings with reading about Robinson's struggling on the sunny (or rainy) island.. Good luck to all brave readers.
    • 1/5
      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)
    • 4/5
      I really love this novel; just read it for the third time and very much enjoyed reading it again.The tale of Robinson Crusoe, who needs to survive on an island after having been shipwrecked, is a story that is familiar to most of us. Defoe's story is gripping, imaginative, and shows a great sense for detail and description. The book is written from Crusoe's point of view and uses a simple type of language, which fits very well with the story.Though I am not a religious person myself and find Crusoe's religious thoughts a bit much at times, I guess this type of ideas about the omnipotence of God and the role of providence in our lives were common in the early 18th century, and I never found it too annoying. I think many modern readers will profit from considering his ideas. Though I do not necessarily feel we should give thanks to God for everything, I do think it is true that many people are very preoccupied with what they lack, in stead of being happy with the things they have. Crusoe teaches us that it is important to be happy with what we have, and to be grateful for those things, because our situation could easily have been worse.
    • 3/5
      Published in 1719 and certainly a classic adventure story, but its inconsistencies don’t stand up to much scrutiny, and it isn’t particularly well written. The main inspiration for the tale was the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who had been left for four years on an uninhabited island after arguing with his captain, then rescued, and his story told in 1712. Defoe expanded on this of course, among other things stranding Crusoe for 28 years, and having him meet ‘Friday’, an aboriginal who he then (ugh) made a servant and converted to the ‘True God’. Friday is not treated as a person, he’s more like other ‘material’ Crusoe finds, but this was par for the course at this time in history.Aside from the adventure story, Defoe was exploring man’s nature and his reaction to adversity, topics larger than the story itself. In one scene, Crusoe lists ‘evil’ aspects to his condition (‘I am cast upon a horrible desolate island, void of all hope of recovery’), and corresponding good aspects (‘But I am alive, and not drown’d as all my ship’s company was’). I don’t think there was anything particularly insightful here, though the struggle for survival and events like finding the footprint are iconic and lasting images.Quotes:On accepting fate:“I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them; because they see and covet something that He has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”And:“These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of Providence to me, and very thankful for my present condition, with all its hardships and misfortunes; and this part also I cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt in their misery to say, “Is there any affliction like mine!” Let them consider how much worse the cases of some people are, and their case might have been, if Providence had thought fit.”On money:“He told me that it was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortune on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me, or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found by long experience was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labor and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind.”On religion:“I had rather be delivered up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the priests, and be carried into the Inquisition.”On youth:“...how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, viz. that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not ashamed for the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men.”
    • 1/5
      Unreadable prose (37 semicolons in a single sentence!) and a self-satisfied narrator make for a very unlikeable book. Defoe was a sexist, racist, colonialist pig, and this book reflects little more than his own crazed view of the world. It's a useful historical document, of course.
    • 4/5
      I just reread this book, and it is amazing to me that it is as relevant today as it was when it was written in the late 1600's! I think sometimes people are expecting this to be an adventure story, but truly it is the theme "man vs. himself." Robinson Crusoe has to come to grips with the fact that his choices got him to the point he was in life, good or bad. Loved it.
    • 3/5
      In Robinson Crusoe, an Englishman, Robinson, gets shipwrecked! He is stranded on an island for about 35 years... until hes 55 years old! He rescues a man that is being kept hostage by the island natives. He names this man Friday, because thats the day he met him! This book was very adventurous, which is fun to read about! It was written in Old English which was sometimes hard to understand.Overall, I thought this book was very interesting! And you should read it! :)
    • 2/5
      Much talk to tell a story, gets boreing , sometimes temped to skip. Which I am loath to do as I figure something has to be interesting soon and then would miss only thing making the read worth while. But this guy is a suffer to read.
    • 3/5
      I've been on a bit of a classic novel kick lately and this book may be the end of it for a little while. It was not bad, but there was a lot of potential in this novel that was left undeveloped. Robinson Crusoe is a story most know, the tale of a man stranded on a deserted island for years. While a fascinating story, I found Robinson Crusoe's interactions with the natives who sometime visited the island the most frustrating part of the tale. True to European stereotypes, these natives are cannibals. Furthermore, after rescuing one of their intended victims, a man who becomes his servant Friday, Robinson Crusoe proceeds to convert this man to Christianity. All in all, this classic novel tells one a great deal about the prejudices of the time it was written in.
    • 2/5
      he waited 20-something years to meet Friday. the first teo chapters were packed with action and then he was alone on his island. turns out that u need at least two people in a story and to create conflict so that part was just slow for me to read. the last three chapters are packed again with lots of actions and people on the island.
    • 2/5
      When I started this book, I was expecting a story about survival. I expected to hear about wild adventures and man vs. nature. I got a little of that. But, mostly I got a whiny narrator who complained bitterly about how lonely he was and how he wanted a companion. Turns out, he really just wanted a servant. I couldn't get into the story at all, I didn't like the main character (not even enough to feel a little sorry for him) and I really wasn't impressed by the ending. This was a slight disappointment for me.
    • 3/5
      Adventure n'that. With parrots and goats. A really good read.
    • 5/5
      Wilkie Collins put in the pen of Gabriel Betteredge the following words: "I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad — ROBINSON CRUSOE. When I want advice — ROBINSON CRUSOE. In past times when my wife plagued me; in present times when I have had a drop too much — ROBINSON CRUSOE." At once both caricature and encomium, and each a fitting response.
    • 3/5
      A classic long overdue in reading. Surprisingly detailed account of ship wreck, survival and faith
    • 4/5
      Like most people I started reading Robinson Crusoe with the preconceived thought of a adventure story, using primitive means to survive. Yes, the book indeed has this element, but what thoroughly fascinated me was his reflection on giving thanks for what one has, and what one may feel is required for a happy life at one point may be completely irrelevant, and even detrimental when viewed from a different perspective.
    • 1/5
      I don't think I've ever disliked a book more in my life.

      Robinson Crusoe is basically the literary equivalent of stale bread. IT'S SO DAMN DULL, and PAAAINFULLY BORING (at least stale bread still has some nutritional value). I hated it. I hated it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.

      I never want to hear of this book ever again.
    • 3/5
      Robinson Crusoe was bored with his quiet life in England,so desided to go sea.But one day,his ship overturned and he reached the uninhabited island alone.This book is very interesting. I was impressed by his caurage. I think I want to be brave person like him.
    • 4/5
      One of my favorite classics as a child - I suppose because I felt so isolated back then. Defoe shows us that we are all victims of a shipwreck - stranded in the middle of the ocean called life. Faced with the struggle of Man against Nature, most of us would not cope as well as Defoe's hero.
    • 2/5
      I tried to read this when I was getting my Masters in English. Truly, I did. It was on a list of maybe a hundred books that I was supposed to read outside of classes and be prepared to talk about in an oral exam... and it was the only one I began, and simply couldn't finish. I got to page 26 before I gave up.This year, I decided to try it again. After all, back when I tried it the first time, I was stressed and rushed, and surely some book or another would test my patience, so it had to be better than I'd thought back then. Right? Well, um, yeah... not really.I understand this is a classic, and I even understand why. I'm glad to be able to say that I finally finished it. But that's about all I can say. This was a dry read, and one that I had a hard time getting through. Sprinkles of action didn't make up for the non-action or the style of the book, and although I rather like the idea of the story and wanted to enjoy this, I just couldn't. Unless you have to read it, I probably wouldn't recommend it.
    • 3/5
      Robinson Crusoe doesn't deserve classic status to my mind. The language and authorship seemed pedestrian. The most enjoyable passages were philosophical (his conversion to Christianity and Providence, for example) or concerning Friday and cannibals. These were outweighed by pages of narrative-choking detail about building fences and disposing of property, and the characters beside the protagonist are very thin.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful, seminal achievement by one of the greatest masters of prose ever.
    • 4/5
      Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked on an island after his slave ship runs aground. The rest of his crew soon die and Robinson is left to fend for himself. Robinson soon encounters a group of savages, one of which he befriends and names Friday, and the two work in tandem to get themselves off the island.Defoe’s work provides opportunity for various topics of discussion, ranging from the power of religion to the reconciliation of cultural differences. It is also an excellent book for examining the development of the English language, as the writing style is quite a bit different than most of the texts your students may have encountered.
    • 5/5
      One of the best young adult books ever written. Deserted islands and shipwrecks started with Dafoe.
    • 3/5
      Although tedious at times, I found this book to be a captivating adventure. With allowances made for the time period the book was written, this book is a rather straighforward and intriguing adventure. It does get repetitive at times and bogs down with the detail of the drudgery of Crusoe's solitary life on the island, but perhaps that just give's one a sense of how monotonous and slowly life would pass if one were walking in Robinson Crusoe's shoes.
    • 3/5
      The majority of this book is enjoyable if you keep it in perspective. Being written as long ago as it was it still maintains a quality of easily read prose that I do not find in any other book of the time period. It leans a little heavily into religious thought but I suppose if you are stranded on an island for 28 years you have a lot of time to think!The end doesn't live up to the rest of the book. The last 20 odd pages are just a mess, and take the reader through some idiotic exercise in the mountains between Spain and France. There is a series of attacks by 300 wolves and bears and our man Friday teases a bear before killing him. Very bad.
    • 4/5
      I can see where this book would have been very unique for its time. It was a very enjoyable (and in some ways an educational) read, but I just kept being amazed at how unadventurous old Robinson Crusoe really was - i.e. 9 months on the island before he even thought to take a stroll around to the other side to see what was actually on this island he was living on???