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Loading... Robinson Crusoe (1719)by Daniel Defoe
  
» 65 more 18th Century (1) Books Read in 2016 (178) Folio Society (126) A Novel Cure (98) Epistolary Books (3) 1,001 BYMRBYD Concensus (103) Ambleside Books (86) Art of Reading (8) Unreliable Narrators (57) Overdue Podcast (53) Books Read in 2020 (655) A Reading List (10) Best First Lines (39) Greatest Books (1) Books Read in 2015 (2,195) A's favorite novels (32) Books Read in 2019 (2,737) Fiction For Men (18) Books Read in 2021 (4,593) One Book, Many Authors (359) AP Lit (25) Books about pirates (23) 1710s (1) Ranking (42) Leseliste (14) Out of Copyright (233) Summer Books (28) Books Read in 2016 (67) Favourite Books (1,610) No current Talk conversations about this book.  furicle | Aug 5, 2023 |  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 Best read as a historical document rather than as a novel. (  ) Nealmaro | Jul 28, 2023 | 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) (  ) NewLibrary78 | Jul 22, 2023 | Hardcover  Snowplum85 | May 31, 2023 | 8496246094 archivomorero | May 21, 2023 |
 “Robinson Crusoe,” though, remains something truly special: It belongs in that small category of classics — others are “The Odyssey” and “Don Quixote” — that we feel we’ve read even if we haven’t. Retellings for children and illustrations, like those by N.C. Wyeth, have made its key scenes universally recognizable.... A classic is a book that generations have found worth returning to and arguing with. Vividly written, replete with paradoxes and troubling cultural attitudes, revealing a deep strain of supernaturalism beneath its realist surface, “Robinson Crusoe” is just such a classic and far more than a simple adventure story for kids.  A friend of mine, a Welsh blacksmith, was twenty-five years old and could neither read nor write, when he heard a chapter of Robinson read aloud in a farm kitchen. Up to that moment he had sat content, huddled in his ignorance, but he left that farm another man. There were day-dreams, it appeared, divine day-dreams, written and printed and bound, and to be bought for money and enjoyed at pleasure. Down he sat that day, painfully learned to read Welsh, and returned to borrow the book. It had been lost, nor could he find another copy but one that was in English. Down he sat once more, learned English, and at length, and with entire delight, read Robinson... It was the scene of Crusoe at the wreck, if I remember rightly, that so bewitched my blacksmith. Nor is the fact surprising. Every single article the castaway recovers from the hulk is “a joy for ever” to the man who reads of them. They are the things that should be found, and the bare enumeration stirs the blood. Crusoe has been called a kind of Protestant monk, and it is true that he turns the chance of his isolation into an anchorite’s career. The story is one of spiritual realization — almost half a lifetime spent on contemplation works profound changes, whatever the subject’s religion. We can watch Crusoe become, year by year, a better, wiser man... Robinson Crusoe may still be the greatest English novel. Surely it is written with a mastery that has never been surpassed. It is not only as convincing as real life. It is as deep and as superficial as direct experience itself. Belongs to SeriesBelongs to Publisher Series — 64 more Blau (15) Corticelli [Mursia] (62) Dean's Classics (31) Ediciones de bolsillo (366) Everyman's Library (59) insel taschenbuch (0041) Limited Editions Club (S:1.11) Little Blue Books (559) Oxford English Novels (1719) Penguin Clothbound Classics (2013) Penguin English Library, 2012 series (2012-12) The Pocket Library (PL-510) Reader's Enrichment Series (RE 112) Tus Libros. Anaya (22) Whitman Classics (2124) The World's Classics (17) Библиотека приключений (I, 1) Is contained inGrote avonturen drieling. Gullivers reizen / Robinson Crusoe / Michael Strogoff, de koerier van de tsaar. by Henk Cornelissen Lincoln's Log Cabin Library: Lincoln's Fireside Reading: The Books That Made the Man...the Bible; Pilgrim's Progress; Robinson Crusoe; Aesop's Fables; Life of Washington by H. Jack Lang Is retold inFoe by J. M. Coetzee Has the (non-series) sequelHas the adaptationIs abridged inInspiredHas as a studyDaniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe / Moll Flanders (Readers' Guides to Essential Criticism) by Paul Baines Has as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Classic Literature.
Fiction.
HTML: Robinson Crusoe is the fictional autobiography of the title character. As a young man, Crusoe sets out from England on a disastrous sea voyage. His passion for seafaring remains undiminished and so he sets out again, only to be shipwrecked a third time. His journey takes him to Brazil where he becomes a plantation owner. A third and final shipwrecking, however, leaves him stranded for 28 years on a remote island. There he becomes a devout Christian and believes his life lacks nothing but society. The work is sometimes credited with being the first English novel. .No library descriptions found. 
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.5Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Queen Anne 1702-45LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.56)
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Wikipedia in English (8)
12
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. (