Robinson Crusoe

by Daniel Defoe
List(s):"Carp 500"
Category: "Fiction - Adventure"
Pages:339
Year of Publication:1719
Date Read:09/24/1995
Notes:Robinson Crusoe leaves his comfortable middle-class home in England to go to sea. Surviving shipwreck, he lives on an island for 28 years, alone for most of the time until he saves the life of a savage, whom he names Friday. Partly based on the real-life story of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who at his own request was put ashore on an uninhabited island in 1704 after a quarrel with his captain. He was picked up in 1709.

COMMENTS — The full title of this book could be on the Carp list by itself: The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account how he was at last Strangely Deliver’d by Pyrates. Written by Himself.
My Rating: 6

Reviews for Robinson Crusoe

Review - Robinson Crusoe

The first part of his stay on the island is interesting but redundant. The second part, after he meets Friday, is sketchy. People keep showing up on the island and the place seems positively crowded. Crusoe is not very likeable. He vacillates between fear and bravery, has no sense of humor, and has no idea how to relax. After 20-something years without seeing another human, he immediately makes a slave out of the first person he meets, then insists on being the king of everyone else who shows up. And I still don't get what the wolves have to do with anything.

Reviewed by Roger on 2003-07-20 14:21:10

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