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    Robinson Crusoe
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    Robinson Crusoe
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    Robinson Crusoe
    Ebook363 pages6 hours

    Robinson Crusoe

    By Daniel Defoe

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe. This first edition credited the work's fictional protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued. Despite its simple narrative style, Robinson Crusoe was well received in the literary world and is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre.

    Crusoe sets sail from the Queen's Dock in Hull on a sea voyage against the wishes of his parents who want him to pursue a career, possibly in law. After a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm, his lust for the sea remains so strong that he sets out to sea again. This journey, too, ends in disaster as the ship is taken over by Salé pirates and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a Captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa rescues him. The ship is en route to Brazil. With the captain's help, Crusoe procures a plantation. Years later, Crusoe joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an island (which he calls the Island of Despair) near the mouth of the Orinoco river.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookRix
    Release dateOct 16, 2018
    ISBN9783736801516
    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.

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    Reviews for Robinson Crusoe

    3.5/5

    3,480 ratings53 reviews

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    • 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
      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.
    • 3/5
      Adventure n'that. With parrots and goats. A really good read.
    • 4/5
      A brilliant book that set the standard for the Desert Island Genre. It's a classic, and a great read for both adults and children, much better than endless Enid Blyton I read at that age.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      I read this book in eighth grade cause it was worth more 'reading points' than some of the other books on the list. But when I first picked it up, it was a non-stop adventure and tale of survival that I absolutely adored. If you like survival classics like Lord of the Flies or Castaway, then this is a great read as well.
    • 4/5
      I love this classic tale. I pick it up occasionally and read it again; it always feels like I am meeting an old friend once more.
    • 5/5
      My absolute favourite as a child
    • 2/5
      For what was supposed to be the classic shipwreck story I couldn't help but be disappointed by Robinson Crusoe. It may have been the language of the time, but I found the story to be slow and frankly a little boring. It seemed to be a lot of lists of things that Crusoe was doing or accumulating or learning. And for someone who spent so long alone on an island, I would have thought that he would have gone at least a little bit crazy! 
    • 4/5
      This book to me was both an epic adventure and a deeper look into the soul of an individual. It had both the survivalist type adventure, as well as the introspection of someone who finds themselves in an unimaginable situation. At first he refuses to believe in what is happening, then he moves into the realization that it is inevitable, then he adjusts again and can't concieve of the possibility of the change he has been dreaming of.
    • 3/5
      The storyline of this novel is intriguing enough, but since the medium was so new, Defoe's writing leaves much to be desires. Crusoe's constant listing and mood swings are hard to get through after a while.
    • 4/5
      This was a classic that I'd missed reading for over five decades but determined to attempt this year. It was an enjoyable read, believable, and kept my interest throughout the tale.
    • 3/5
      Timeless classic!
    • 4/5
      Read this, expecting to know the story, since it is a tale told all over the world. Was happily surprised to feel the pace of Crusoe's routines, and all the details of everyday life only made the story more believable. Wonderful read. Read Robert P. Marzec's "Enclosure, Colonization, and the Robinson Crusoe syndrome" parallel with Defoe's book - very interesting analysis. Text published in "boundary", 2:29:2, 2002 (Duke Uni. Press).
    • 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
      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. :(
    • 4/5
      This novel is so good and such a bulwark of the proverbial canon that this series' editor's choice to modernize the language and syntax falls a bit flat. A good version for the un-initiated, though it pales in comparison to the experience of the original novel.
    • 4/5
      I heard a lot of negative things about the story of Robinson Crusoe, so when I decided to pick up the book I had my doubts. I have to say, I found the book engaging and the story thoroughly interesting. I loved everything about the book right up until the ending. I felt as though Defoe rushed the end and took away everything we enjoyed from the Robinson's island adventure.
    • 1/5
      To say I hated this book is probably the understatement of the century. In fact, I'm only halfway through the book after six years! I just can't seem to bring myself to buckle down and finish it mainly because the main character is a whiny pompous ass who is just plain dislikeable. I should probably donate this book, but there is still this little part of me that insists on finishing it, although that will most likely never happen.
    • 5/5
      Sure, it's not for everyone, but what book is? I've read it many times. It's a great book, especially after a tough week or month surrounded by traffic, computers, and smog. Then I just want to be Robinson on my own private island, building, inventing, and slowly going happily mad!

    • 4/5
      Read another copy as a child - loved it - played games for a year based on this shipwrecked, lonely chap & Man Friday (younger sister in reality): Defoe's story is a timeless classic of imagination mixed with the reality of a seafaring mishap all too familiar to the era - amazingly his first novel when aged 60, & a masterpiece of its kind. Still love its vivid ruggedness, today.
    • 4/5


      Fascinating book both for its detailed subject matter and its insight into the mindset and culture of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      The legend of Robinson Crusoe and his Man Friday are elaborated in the novel and one can understand the appeal. The audiobook is also nicely done.
    • 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.
    • 1/5
      Terrible classic. Don't bother.
    • 3/5
      I think if someone cleared this of about 95% of the religious/"moral" drivel, it would be a decent story. As it is, much of it is bogged down by his droning on about that. But the story itself was fairly interesting. Not really recommended unless you're simply a fan of the old classics, and/or like having that sort of thing shoved endlessly down your throat.
    • 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! :)
    • 4/5
      based on the story of a man from selkirk in Scotland