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ljones 's review for:
Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe
This was my late father's favorite book. He read it as a boy and said it sparked his lifelong love of adventure stories. All I really knew about it before was from old TV parodies and a 1950s movie. But after finally reading the novel myself, I think I understand what my engineer dad saw in it. Ingenuity.
Crusoe starts out as a pampered man with no practical skills. When his ship begins to sink and he’s asked to help pump out the water, he collapses and has to be dragged out of the way. But once he’s shipwrecked alone on a deserted island, he manages to survive with only a few supplies and a whole lot of intelligence and creativity. The way he adapts and builds a life for himself is surprisingly detailed and honestly fascinating. Defoe really drew me into the day-to-day process of surviving and building from nothing.
That said, this is a story written over 300 years ago, and some parts are wholly problematic. Crusoe is on a voyage to capture and enslave people when his ship goes down. Even after being enslaved himself, his views on slavery don't change. The story is also filled with themes of European colonialism. Because of that, it’s hard to see Crusoe as a sympathetic character by today’s standards.
Still, I’m really glad I read this classic. It was so much more interesting and readable than I ever expected. And in a time when colonial history is often being glossed over, stories like this feel important as records of how people once thought and lived. It doesn’t excuse the issues, but it does help us see them clearly.
Crusoe starts out as a pampered man with no practical skills. When his ship begins to sink and he’s asked to help pump out the water, he collapses and has to be dragged out of the way. But once he’s shipwrecked alone on a deserted island, he manages to survive with only a few supplies and a whole lot of intelligence and creativity. The way he adapts and builds a life for himself is surprisingly detailed and honestly fascinating. Defoe really drew me into the day-to-day process of surviving and building from nothing.
That said, this is a story written over 300 years ago, and some parts are wholly problematic. Crusoe is on a voyage to capture and enslave people when his ship goes down. Even after being enslaved himself, his views on slavery don't change. The story is also filled with themes of European colonialism. Because of that, it’s hard to see Crusoe as a sympathetic character by today’s standards.
Still, I’m really glad I read this classic. It was so much more interesting and readable than I ever expected. And in a time when colonial history is often being glossed over, stories like this feel important as records of how people once thought and lived. It doesn’t excuse the issues, but it does help us see them clearly.