I'm so happy this nightmare is over! I only trudged through to the end because it's a classic.

Look at me, yes me, I'm Robinson Crusoe and I'm stuck here on this Island and I'm going to tell you all about it, down to the minutest detail... oh and I'm going to do this more than once and... if that's not good enough, I'm going to tell you how I found Providence - that's right - because there is a reason I survived the sunk ship, so I'm going to thank Providence over and over and over and, just when you thought I was humble enough, I'm going to show you how human I am and how things go wrong when I forget to thank Providence, so I'll do it all over again and again and again. Since I'm on this Island all by myself for 200 pages long, you'll have to put up with every wisp of internal monolog too, that's right. And I'm going to be scared and worried until I figure out each obstacle - even though you'll hope for tension and excitement about the state of my imagined dangers, there's really nothing to worry about. I'm a genius, yes, because even though I was stuck here at a young age all by myself, and even though I hardly knew a thing about the world beforehand, I'm going to figure out farming, goat herding, carpentry, sewing, weaponry, tool making, boat building and so many other skills, and I'm going to be an expert in each one of them. Ok ok, you've put up with all of this right? Now I'm going to reward you with a bit of action here and there for the last 100 pages, but mind you, I'm never in real danger and I'll always be the victor and supreme ruler of my Island, AND I'll thank Providence after each victory. Basically, I'm blessed and everyone I'm in touch with will have good fortune and will give me in return nothing but good fortune, no one will ever cheat me, lie to me, betray me, hurt me or do any evil unto me. There you are, everything works out, smooth sailing all the way, the end.

|| 1.0 star ||

I’m not lying when I say this might possibly be the most boring book I have ever read. There’s a reason it took me a whole month to get through: I genuinely could not get myself to ever pick it up, because I dreaded it so much. I truly felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again; it was that uneventful and repetitive.

This was genuinely nothing but a diary of a lonely, unlikable man sitting on an island where he talks in excruciating detail about the home he builds there, the seeds he has planted, the baskets he weaves, the animals he kills and tames, etc. Actually, I should correct myself: The book didn’t even really feel like a diary, but more like an administrative log where he kept precise count of all of his provisions and harvests.
It’s not an exaggeration to say this man aimlessly walks on an island for almost thirty whole years and does nothing but exist. The only thing he ever thinks about is survival and God, which were both handled in the most repetitive and uninteresting ways possible. Literally nothing happens until the last 100 pages and even then I still couldn’t care any less.

All in all, I hated this book. I genuinely did. It was impossibly boring and therefore beyond frustrating.

Wow. Absolutely nothing could make me happier than finally being able to write a review for this horrible, horrible book. Probably the worst I’ve ever read. I’ve been fantasizing about what I’d write here for weeks now so this is a very proud moment for me.

Even though it’s only 240 pages it took me five months to finish, and then only because I forced myself to read ten pages every night before I went to sleep. Though “read” might be overstating it because I often struggled to pay attention for more than three sentences, but it wasn’t a problem because every time I zoned back in I realized I hadn’t missed anything. This is because, for a book about a man being stranded on an island, absolutely nothing happens. Even his being stranded is a nonevent. The writing is so monotonous and emotionless it often felt like I was reading an incredibly dense shopping list. I really could not recommend it less. It barely even has any literary or historical merit (if I was pioneering the modern novel, I simply would have written a better book) and reading it is like pulling out your own teeth. I’m convinced everyone who’s ever given this a positive rating is playing an incredibly elaborate joke on me.

This early 18th-century British classic is one of those novels which relatively few people today have actually read, but which has become a household word in popular English-language culture, with a basic premise that virtually everyone is aware of: English seaman is shipwrecked and marooned for years (27 years, in fact) on a desert island. Most people are also aware that he eventually has the companionship of a native, whom he calls "Friday" because he met him on a Friday. But that's about as far as the general knowledge of the book goes. The average person would probably be surprised to learn that Crusoe is rescued about midway through the book and has other adventures, finally traversing the entire breadth of Asia and Europe from the Pacific back to England.

The book is also one which any number of adults (most of whom, as noted above, haven't read it for themselves) traditionally assume would be a particularly child-friendly classic, since shipwrecks are thought to be the stuff of "adventure;" so it turns up a lot in school libraries and public library children's collections. I first encountered it (though I'm not sure if I actually finished it --I certainly didn't remember the last half of it!) as a grade-school kid, but at that age, I found much of the description of the title character's life on the island to be excruciatingly boring. Even reading it as an adult, as part of my preparation for teaching British Literature when we were homeschooling our girls, I found the same material a fairly tedious slog. Defoe describes all of his hero's various physical-technological arrangements for daily living under wilderness conditions, with no man-made resources except what he could salvage from the wreck, in great detail. This part of the book would make a great survivalist manual, and some readers also find it fascinating as narrative fiction; but I don't. For me personally, much of the attraction of fiction is in the interpersonal interactions of the characters; I want fiction that's relationship-centered, not physical processes/technology centered. Much of this novel is the latter. Before and after that, it has more person-centered narrative, and even situations that are inherently dramatic and exciting, with action, violence and danger. But even that part is narrated in the dry, ponderous diction of the Neoclassical school, which distrusted emotion and deliberately tried to keep its prose cerebral and dispassionate. That has a tendency to minimize the full effect even of exciting and dramatic events. As a grade school kid, I was a precocious reader, and had no problem with Victorian, Edwardian, or Romantic period style; but Neoclassical prose, while I could follow it, tended to seem dull to me, and even as an adult, I can see how it ultimately provoked the Romantic reaction.

A point that's worth taking seriously is that Defoe didn't write this as a kid's book; he wrote it for adults. As an adult reader, I found much more of it that I could appreciate than I had decades earlier. For one thing, it's a seriously Christian novel; Crusoe was largely indifferent to the spiritual side of life before his shipwreck, but having salvaged a Bible, it becomes his sole reading matter, and he learns to take his inherited Christian beliefs seriously. Through Crusoe's first-person narration (a typical device of early novelists, who still tried to disguise their fiction as true memoirs to avoid moralistic attacks on the concept of fiction itself as sinful "lying"), Defoe presents explicit messages about the importance of salvation from sin through Christ's sacrifice, God's love and providential care, and our moral duty to Him. At the same time, this is a basic, ecumenical kind of faith (what C. S. Lewis, much later, would call "mere Christianity") which explicitly deplores nitty-picky wrangling over doctrinal theology. (For instance, unlike virtually all English Protestants of that era, he does not demonize Catholics; a Roman Catholic priest is actually a sympathetic character.) Unlike at least one reviewer, I don't agree that Crusoe's newfound faith is nothing more than a sop to get the Church to approve of the book, and that he doesn't actually live up to it.

That naturally segues into a discussion of the racial and other messages of the book. Crusoe's desert island is in the Caribbean, near the mouth of the Orinoco River; Friday's people are Carib Indians (and cannibals, when they're dealing with enemies captured in war). They lack a great deal of the knowledge that Europeans possess, as well as lacking Christian revelation in the Bible; but as Crusoe reflects at one point --and this being message-oriented Neoclassical fiction, his verbalized reflections on philosophical, moral and religious questions are a big part of what the author wants to use him to communicate-- once exposed to it, they have just as much moral, intellectual and spiritual ability to make use of it as Europeans, and may actually make better use of it. Since our hero rescued Friday from enemies who intended to eat him, Friday feels a debt of gratitude to his rescuer, and a regard for his superior knowledge (which Crusoe's willing to share), and tends to fall into a servant role voluntarily, but he's not a slave and I wouldn't say he's exploited. The two share the labor their lifestyle requires, and share the benefits of their labor fairly; a lot of their interaction is more as friends than as master and servant. Although Crusoe was wrecked on a slave-trading voyage, he comes to take a Christian stand against slavery and slave-trading, at some cost to himself. Defoe also takes the position that it's perfectly legitimate for English men to marry Carib Indian women, and that it's NOT legitimate to exploit them sexually outside of marriage. On all of these points, the book takes a stance that's diametrically contrary to the racist attitudes and practices of the overwhelming majority of early 18th-century Englishmen. I give Defoe high marks for that, and I'd say he represents a consistent moral stance that was often all too lacking in the nominal Christianity of the early modern West. (If it had been more prevalent, our history might well have been a lot different, for the better.)

Some critics have characterized this book as "the first English novel." That depends on how you define a novel; if you consider it, as I do, to be just a book-length prose fictional narrative, then this is far from the first. It is, however, certainly one of the most realistic and technically accomplished of the early novels, and one that I liked overall in spite of its faults. It's still the only Defoe novel I've read (I have read his story "A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal," but that's worthwhile primarily as an instructive example of how the Neoclassical ghost story differs from those in the Romantic tradition --and like most readers, I prefer the latter); but I do have Moll Flanders on my to-read shelf.

4 Stars for Robinson Crusoe (audiobook) by Daniel Defoe read by Jim Weiss.

This is hard one for me to rate. It’s definitely a classic. It’s inspired by a true story and greatly embellished by the author. It’s the kind of story that could have happened to any couture at any time in history. But this story is about an English sailor that was stranded in 1703 and the book was published in 1719. It seems like it was such a different world then but maybe not much has changed if find yourself castaway on an island and the local people think that you might be tasty.

بعضی از کتاب ها، بیشتر به خاطر فضایی که در اون خونده شدن، توی ذهن می مونن. برای من، رابینسون کروزو، قطعاً از این دسته است. بذارید توصیف کنم: ده دوازده سالم بود. پدر بزرگ مادری ام، یه خونه ی قدیمی داشت، توی قزوین که بسیار بسیار زیبا بود و پر بود از گل و گیاه و پیچک و دار و درخت. هم توی حیاطش، هم توی خود خونه، یه گلخونه ی مفصل داشتن.
من رابینسون کوروزو رو توی خونه ی پدربزرگم خوندم (از کتابخونه ی پدربزرگم کش رفتم و خوندم) و توی عوالم بچگی، حیاط پر از درخت پدربزرگم رو، جزیره ی متروکه تصور میکردم که من توش گرفتار شدم. یه جورایی، هم میخوندم و هم بازی میکردمش. یادم نمیره لذت اون روزی که مثلاً زیر بارون گیر افتاده بودم (واقعاً بارون میومد) و زیر درخت مخفی شدم که خیس نشم، چون سر پناه دیگه ای نداشتم. مادرم وقتی من رو خیس آب دید، حسابی دعوام کرد.

Un po’ come tanti, da ragazzo ho letto anch’io la mia “brava” versione condensata di “Robinson Crusoè” (1719) traendone le fantasie e i voli tipici dell’età ma successivamente pur non facendo mancare alla mia libreria diverse versioni adulte, ho sempre rimandato la lettura integrale di questo capolavoro della letteratura e alla fine, quando mi sono deciso, ho optato per una edizione che contenesse anche il seguito delle avventure del protagonista: “Le Nuove Avventure di Robinson Crusoè” (1719). Inutile e superfluo ribadire l’indiscussa superiorità del primo romanzo della serie per l’idea di fondo così originale e per l’abilità dello scrittore di raccontare in maniera credibile come il protagonista riesca dopotutto a sopravvivere e a superare le molteplici difficoltà della vita quotidiana, della solitudine dell’anima, dello scoramento interiore e a inventarsi sempre nuovi traguardi per non deprimersi nell' isolamento. “Le Nuove Avventure” senza cadere nella mediocrità, ma senza nemmeno sfiorare l’eccellenza del precedente lavoro letterario, raccontano i viaggi che Robinson, ormai anziano e benestante ma sempre votato all’avventura, affronta successivamente al ritorno dall’isola alla civiltà, argomento trattato peraltro da una miriade di scrittori non solo dopo ma anche prima di Daniel Defoe [1660-1731] e in cui si percepisce il lavoro scritto più per motivi di lucro sull’onda dell’inattesa notorietà che per una nuova idea.

Spoiler alert...Robinson Crusoe was a total douchebag. If anyone deserved to get stuck on an island for 28 years, it was this guy. His story begins with his dying father pleading with him to stay at home, but the teenage Crusoe won't have it. He wants to be a sailor, he swears that he's meant to be a sailor, he totally loves the sea - even though he's never been on a boat. So, against his family's wishes he runs off to a buddy's ship. And guess what? He hates it. He's sick all the time, the boat is super rocky, there are too many waves - then, they crash. It's the worst. Somehow, he survives. Once on land he gets drunk with some of his friends and is all like, maybe I was wrong about the sea, maybe it's actually great. So, after a night of binge drinking with the sailors, Crusoe forgets that he hated the sea and vowed never to go to sea again. So, like the idiot that he is, he gets on another boat.

The minute he's on this other boat he's captured by pirates and he's forced to become a slave. Once again, asking for it. So, after a few years of slavery he escapes on a tiny boat. You'd think that once you're MADE INTO A SLAVE, you'd have some pity for other slaves but NO. Not this guy. He escapes on this tiny boat with a guy who is now HIS slave and after making HIS slave kill some huge, dangerous lions - so Crusoe could have a blanket to lay on (what's the slave sleeping on? nothing)- they finally meet some other sailors. Crusoe sells his slave to them and ends up in Brazil. He starts a farm and is doing pretty well, on land, mind you. Of course, old dickish Crusoe forgets how lucky he's been to make it this far, and decides it's time for another voyage. Why? Because he's a lazy prick and wants some free slaves to run his farm. So, he sets off for Africa, and gets what's coming to him. If only it ended there.

After about 24 years on this island he saves this kid, who he names Friday, from being cannibalized. This is the first person he has spoken to in 24 years. And what does he do with him? Makes him into a SLAVE. Why? Because he can't be bothered with making corn and wheat, because he's too busy - being STRANDED ON A DESERTED ISLAND. All he has is time! What do you need a slave for? After a mess of shit, involving more cannibals, some Spaniards and some mutineers - Crusoe and poor Friday make it to civilization. His time off the island is summed up in this paragraph, "In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all, I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction, and had three children, two sons and one daughter; but my wife dying, and my nephew coming home with good success from a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his importunity, prevailed, and engaged me to go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies; this was in the year 1694." Meaning, the dick is back. He gets married, has some kids and when the wife starts to die he decides it's time to leave! Ring any bells? Dad is dying, time to be a sailor. Same deal. Asshole.

If all that isn't proof enough this guy was a total douche, he drowns a TON of kittens on HIS island, so many he lost count.

Modelled on Alexander Selkirk the Scotsman, Robinson Crusoe is the story of a shipwrecked sailor who spends years in an island isolated from so-called civilisation.

Extremely episodic, almost like seasons of a teleserial. Enjoyable in patches though the narrative could be smoother. The unevenness is probably thanks to its episodic nature and serialised publication. It felt like it desperately needed an editor’s ironing touch before the whole thing came out as a book. It is in part adventure, memoir, and allegory. Its extreme heterogeneity and fractured episodic nature does not allow the read to feel like a novel per se. Three and a half stars.

I know, I know... Robinson Crusoe is a book full of cultural relativism and unconscious cruelty. He's an imperialist bastard. I know.

But it is exactly these elements, plus the fact that it is one hell of an adventure story, that made me really like this book. Yes, it is absolutely provoking. But it also thinks deeply on religion, economy, and self. And it's an adventure. So while in some ways, the story/viewpoint/author are extremely distasteful, it is a very satisfying read.

كنتُ عالقاً على هذه الجزيرة و كنتُ وحيداً تماماً ، فيا لها من حياة شاقة ! لكنّها أيضاً شائقة .


قصة ممتعة في الاحتفاء بالمغامرة و المثابرة و الصراع من أجل الحياة .

Edebiyat dünyası için en önemli kitaplardan biri Robinson Crusoe ve herhalde konusuyla en çok kitabı ve filmi esinleyen eserlerden de biri. Önceki Günün Adası, Uzun Sürmüş Bir Günün Akşamı, Marslı, Cast Away, Lost ilk aklıma gelenler. Doğrudan bir parodi olarak Michel Tournier de Cuma adında bir roman yazmış (bu kitaptan sonra onu okuyacağım). Defoe bu kitabını yazmamış olsaydı, muhtemelen bu ‘‘fantezi’’ yine keşfedilirdi, ama kim bilir ne zaman.

Kitap yazıldığı zamanın ruhuna uygun olarak, epizodik maceralar şeklinde ele alınmış. Robinson önce çeşitli maceralar yaşıyor, sonrasında adaya düşüyor. Adadaki bölümler o bölümlere kıyasla daha bütünlüklü dursa da, yine de epizodik anlatım hakim ve kitapta zaman bilinci pek yerinde değil, yazar bazen basit bir şeyi sayfalarca anlatırken bazen beş yıl sonraya atlayıveriyor, adada kalmaya başlayalı kaç yıl olduğu konusunda birkaç sayfa içerisinde farklı şeyler söyleyiveriyor.

Robinson genel olarak azimli ve inatçı biri, başka bir şey söylemek zor. Adada karşısına çıkan bütün sorunlara rağmen devam ediyor, bazen tanrıdan da yardım alıyor. Bugünün perspektifiyle bakarsak kibirli olduğunu da söyleyebiliriz. Bunun haricinde onun için bir şey söylemek zor. Diğer insanlar ise ikiye ayrılıyor: Ona iyi davrananlar ve iyi davranmayanlar. İyi insanlar iyi davranıyor, kötü insanlar ise kötü davranıyor gibi basit bir akıl yürütmeye dayanıyor bu sınıflama.

Kitabın yazılış amaçlarından biri de, açıkça belli olduğu üzere bir din güzellemesi yapmak. İnançsız Robinson’un inançlı Robinson’a dönüşmesi, tanrıyı, tanrının gerçeklerini ıssız bir adada bulmanın bile mümkün olduğuna dair bir mesel. Ki farklı bir perspektifle, dinin bir hakikat sisteminde ziyade insanın dış dünyayla olan mücadelesinde, yetersiz kaldığını hissettiği için ihtiyaç duyduğu bir kurgu olduğunu bu kitapta net bir biçimde görebiliyoruz. Kaosun içindeki değersiz ve güçsüz insanın kaosa bir düzen getirme arzusu. Doğanın o kadar da umursamaz olamayacağı yanılgısı.

Romanı okurken en çok ilgimi çeken, bana en çok keyif veren şey ise Robinson’un düşünme biçimi üzerine düşünmek oldu. O günün sıradan bir insanı olarak Afrika yerlilerini insan eti yediği için ahlaksız olarak görürken, bugünün sıradan insanının da onu, yavru kedileri öldürdüğü için ahlaksız görebileceğini düşündüm. Tüm roman bu perspektiften okunacak kadar çok malzeme veriyor okura. Robinson’un kendini son derece doğal bir şekilde Cuma’nın efendisi olarak kabul etmesi, kölelikle ve sömürgecilikle ilgili ufacık bir rahatsız duymaması ama aynı zamanda katı bir ahlakçı olması, umarım bugünün yükselen ahlakçılığında ahlak kesenlere basit bir döngüyü gösterebilir: Ahlak zaman ve coğrafyanın çocuğudur. Tutarlı bir ahlaki sistem kurmak mümkün değildir. En katı ahlakçılar bile, sonradan ahlaksız olarak görülebilirler. Cinsiyetçi büyük düşünürler bunun en çarpıcı örneğidir.