A review by hadeanstars
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

3.0

Robinson Crusoe was enjoyable enough, despite it's proto-novel status. It's easy to see where the author went wrong (by contemporary writing standards); too much accounting for stuff, goats, tobacco, gunpowder, bills of sale, firearms, you name it, and not enough talking about feelings. Yes, there was despair, fear and anxiety, and a few conversations with God, but on the whole, this is a dry affair, saved for the most part by the fact that it's a jolly good adventure yarn with some few moments of ridiculous pomposity, usually disguised as a kind of self-assured over-Englishness and a very improbable ending about armies of wolves and bears.

So I'm glad I finally read it, but I'm also kind of glad that I won't have to read it again. And frankly, Crusoe's ordeal wasn't all that bad, after all he had the spoils of two entire shipwrecks at his disposal, so could count on a decent shirt when he needed one. This increases my respect for Tom Hanks massively.