Scan barcode
A review by franchenstein
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
It's interesting rereading a book after somewhat 20 years, noticing that I have forgotten most of it. I had no recollection of Crusoe falling into slavery in Morocco, or of the last adventure by land in the Pyrenees. Most surprisingly, as a Brazilian, I forgot that the main character had land and slaves in my country, when he still called it the Brazils. I read it in Portuguese as a child and now I got the chance to read it in the original.
Frankly, it can be as exciting as it can be boring. Knowing that it's fictional and not a real journal, makes the ending kind of jarring. He keeps on adding adventures, way past their welcome. I could not care about his battle against wolves, or about Friday playing with a bear for five pages. It all sounded like too much of a tall tale after a very long tall tale. Also, the early modern obsession with listing and inventory often become a slog. Defoe's prose is not very elegant nor elaborate, but its simplicity is not that impactful either. He's often repetitive in a way that just makes the text drag.
It is an interesting window to the beliefs of Defoe's times. How unchallenged the notion of slavery goes, how women seem to be treated as merchandise, how one can go for 30 years on an island without a single sexual thought crossing his mind, how he reproduced unconfirmed claims about cannibalism as if they were the most obvious facts about the new world. How Crusoe is indeed, as Joyce says, the prototype of the English colonizer.
And still, there is a sense of wonder and tragedy in the unlucky story of someone who insists on his mistakes, in his unrelenting desire to explore frontiers even when his whole history shows that this is a bad idea. Boldness and curiosity beats security in forging a narrative.
Frankly, it can be as exciting as it can be boring. Knowing that it's fictional and not a real journal, makes the ending kind of jarring. He keeps on adding adventures, way past their welcome. I could not care about his battle against wolves, or about Friday playing with a bear for five pages. It all sounded like too much of a tall tale after a very long tall tale. Also, the early modern obsession with listing and inventory often become a slog. Defoe's prose is not very elegant nor elaborate, but its simplicity is not that impactful either. He's often repetitive in a way that just makes the text drag.
It is an interesting window to the beliefs of Defoe's times. How unchallenged the notion of slavery goes, how women seem to be treated as merchandise, how one can go for 30 years on an island without a single sexual thought crossing his mind, how he reproduced unconfirmed claims about cannibalism as if they were the most obvious facts about the new world. How Crusoe is indeed, as Joyce says, the prototype of the English colonizer.
And still, there is a sense of wonder and tragedy in the unlucky story of someone who insists on his mistakes, in his unrelenting desire to explore frontiers even when his whole history shows that this is a bad idea. Boldness and curiosity beats security in forging a narrative.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Slavery, and Racism