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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
DNF at some relatively early point.
You know the kind of writing where you're exhausted and praying for death by the end of each sentence because they're just so tedious and bland? This is that kind of writing. I know it's old; I've read plenty of old stories. That's not my problem with it.
I don't intend to rate based on politics, mostly because anyone can read this book and see it's painfully racist and anyone can also understand that it's from a different time. But I just want to make a note of the fact that yes, this is indeed very racist, and also very stupid. Crusoe is duuumb. Resourceful, I guess, but not predisposed to learning lessons from experiences. Not when they might challenge his view on something, anyway. Maybe this changes over the course of the book, but I can't be arsed getting there.
You know the kind of writing where you're exhausted and praying for death by the end of each sentence because they're just so tedious and bland? This is that kind of writing. I know it's old; I've read plenty of old stories. That's not my problem with it.
I don't intend to rate based on politics, mostly because anyone can read this book and see it's painfully racist and anyone can also understand that it's from a different time. But I just want to make a note of the fact that yes, this is indeed very racist, and also very stupid. Crusoe is duuumb. Resourceful, I guess, but not predisposed to learning lessons from experiences. Not when they might challenge his view on something, anyway. Maybe this changes over the course of the book, but I can't be arsed getting there.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
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.