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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book seems to be a protonovel, a progenitor to the idea of a today's modern novel. It is an adventure story meant to excite the imagination and satisfy the need for a suspenseful plot denouement. But you can't expect a novel written almost 3 centuries ago to follow the genre conventions established today. Stick with it.
This novel, an adventure of a type only possible in the 1600s and 1700s, reflects a real historical period of human development. For a book which was exploring the possibilities of how to write about an adventure as much as describing a story, this is a damn good ripping story. I don't care what anybody says, I loved it. And it's not just about a shipwreck on an island - there's cannibals, Spaniards, mutineers, pieces of eight, and 300 wolves in the Alps surrounding our hero armed only with single shot pistols and swords.
'Robinson Crusoe' is a snapshot of England during a time when the most of the world was a blank area on maps, which didn't stop these brave ruffians from going exploring and death literally was a minute away whenever travel was undertaken. It was fascinating to read those parts about how business paperwork and legal instruments of property transfer occurred, and how the various European aristocrat powers were crumbling under the rising power of the individual merchants and plantation entrepreneurs. Class and politics mattered, but brave ordinary men seeking adventure AND wealth were taking charge of their own particular destinies, which was not an option a few centuries earlier in feudal Europe. Business was becoming an energy force of society. Members of the lower classes could actually bump up the scale of society if they were prepared to risk everything by taking ship to Africa, South America and the United States.
This stage of novel exposition was cool, far superior to the century's previous poetry, religious instruction, and romantic adventure writing of what then was passing as an exciting book. Try to pay more attention to the details of Crusoe's Europe, the one Jack Sparrow would have really lived in, and not the book's deficiencies as a modern novel. It increases the value of reading this historic game changer in writing novels.
This novel, an adventure of a type only possible in the 1600s and 1700s, reflects a real historical period of human development. For a book which was exploring the possibilities of how to write about an adventure as much as describing a story, this is a damn good ripping story. I don't care what anybody says, I loved it. And it's not just about a shipwreck on an island - there's cannibals, Spaniards, mutineers, pieces of eight, and 300 wolves in the Alps surrounding our hero armed only with single shot pistols and swords.
'Robinson Crusoe' is a snapshot of England during a time when the most of the world was a blank area on maps, which didn't stop these brave ruffians from going exploring and death literally was a minute away whenever travel was undertaken. It was fascinating to read those parts about how business paperwork and legal instruments of property transfer occurred, and how the various European aristocrat powers were crumbling under the rising power of the individual merchants and plantation entrepreneurs. Class and politics mattered, but brave ordinary men seeking adventure AND wealth were taking charge of their own particular destinies, which was not an option a few centuries earlier in feudal Europe. Business was becoming an energy force of society. Members of the lower classes could actually bump up the scale of society if they were prepared to risk everything by taking ship to Africa, South America and the United States.
This stage of novel exposition was cool, far superior to the century's previous poetry, religious instruction, and romantic adventure writing of what then was passing as an exciting book. Try to pay more attention to the details of Crusoe's Europe, the one Jack Sparrow would have really lived in, and not the book's deficiencies as a modern novel. It increases the value of reading this historic game changer in writing novels.
There's a kind of economical simplicity to the narrative and prose in Robinson Crusoe (another way to say I found it flat). I recall hearing somewhere that this volume represents an early fiction of liberal capitalist ideology.
Robinson Crusoe Island to do list
- Wake up and monotonously recount everything you did today in painstaking detail
- Imagine things that ‘savages’ are doing and then be mad about the existence of these imaginary people
- Thank God
- Say everyone would be happy if they thought of someone who had it worse
- Thank God (but you have to be racist this time)
- Build another canoe (unsuccessfully)
- Monotonously recount everything you did today in painstaking detail (except this time slightly differently)
- Actual tangible real life racism
- Thank God
I didn't really care for this book the first time I read it but the second time, it was easier to read because I knew exactly which parts to skip.
I really liked this read even though it was a school one! It was also a really quick read. There weren't any plot twists so what you expected also happened but I didn't mind at all. Defoe wrote a really good adventurous story that will probably entertain the readers for another hundreds of years!
The main character was also well written. I loved to read about all the things Robinson managed to do on the island, although I hardly doubt a young wealthy man from that time could do it on his own... Well, I wouldn't be able even though I've just read all the instructions.
Overall it was a good read. An easy one. Something for a good relax time.
The main character was also well written. I loved to read about all the things Robinson managed to do on the island, although I hardly doubt a young wealthy man from that time could do it on his own... Well, I wouldn't be able even though I've just read all the instructions.
Overall it was a good read. An easy one. Something for a good relax time.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Imagine “Cast Away” married “On the Road” but had a child from a previous relationship with “Django Unchained” and that child grows up to get the lead role in the “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” musical and they all get together every year for Thanksgiving dinner.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Cannibalism
Moderate: Slavery, Murder, War
it was ok.
I actually though during the first couple of chapters (90 pages or so) that this could be enjoyable and the premis aswell seemed very philosophical. But my god it crept about.
2/3 of the book he spends alone on the island and does the same 5 things over and over and over again. The dialoge at the end is so boring and the only you you feel is that the end was near. It would have definitly benefitted from a shorter verison. Because either go through how you feel alone on an island OR the aftermath of spending 25 years in isolation. But not a bad mush out of both.
I literally was so happy when I read he was in his 23 year because I though it would be over than. Oh how I was wrong. We spent till chapter 19 on that dearm island. FROM 20 chapters
I actually though during the first couple of chapters (90 pages or so) that this could be enjoyable and the premis aswell seemed very philosophical. But my god it crept about.
2/3 of the book he spends alone on the island and does the same 5 things over and over and over again. The dialoge at the end is so boring and the only you you feel is that the end was near. It would have definitly benefitted from a shorter verison. Because either go through how you feel alone on an island OR the aftermath of spending 25 years in isolation. But not a bad mush out of both.
I literally was so happy when I read he was in his 23 year because I though it would be over than. Oh how I was wrong. We spent till chapter 19 on that dearm island. FROM 20 chapters
My favorite book of all time. Not for its quality or strength of story, but because I like the ideas of it. That being said, I prefer the t.v. series version of Friday and Crusoe more than the book. It's less racist.