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A review by savoirplus
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
2.0
Like other reviewers have pointed out, there a TON of missing years from his autobiography.
Which brings me to the first point, that it is an extremely dull/dry read for the majority of the book. It's a very slow start, to a extremely disappointing end.
It ends pretty abruptly and with a single chapter where the "author" tried summing up the book.
It was not a great read overall.
I, in all honesty, had to skim most of it just to find the more interesting things he wrote (about himself).
His science experiments and inventions are barely even mentioned, which for me, kind of made the book a bust.
The only few nuggets I gained from reading his first person accounts were:
- How he started learning other languages, such as, French and Italian (Pg. 107)
- How he didn't patent the open furnace (Franklin stove) and his reasons/thoughts as to why not (Pg. 130 & 131)
2/5, I only give it 2 stars for the fact of it is his actual own writing and it's fascinating to get in the mind of a person who is so beloved in American History and in general.
Lack of a 3rd/4th/5th star is due to the fact that content wise I would not recommend someone to read this, or at least NOT start with this book as their first foray into Benjamin Franklin.
Definitely go and check out the dozens of other biographies written by others. Which hopefully, will encompass his life and accomplishments in entirety, which this book does NOT do.
Which brings me to the first point, that it is an extremely dull/dry read for the majority of the book. It's a very slow start, to a extremely disappointing end.
It ends pretty abruptly and with a single chapter where the "author" tried summing up the book.
It was not a great read overall.
I, in all honesty, had to skim most of it just to find the more interesting things he wrote (about himself).
His science experiments and inventions are barely even mentioned, which for me, kind of made the book a bust.
The only few nuggets I gained from reading his first person accounts were:
- How he started learning other languages, such as, French and Italian (Pg. 107)
- How he didn't patent the open furnace (Franklin stove) and his reasons/thoughts as to why not (Pg. 130 & 131)
2/5, I only give it 2 stars for the fact of it is his actual own writing and it's fascinating to get in the mind of a person who is so beloved in American History and in general.
Lack of a 3rd/4th/5th star is due to the fact that content wise I would not recommend someone to read this, or at least NOT start with this book as their first foray into Benjamin Franklin.
Definitely go and check out the dozens of other biographies written by others. Which hopefully, will encompass his life and accomplishments in entirety, which this book does NOT do.