... I thought "Robinson Crusoe" would be in the same vein - how wrong I was!
Just looking around the TV schedules, Robinson Crusoe still seems to hold a great influence in the 21st century. "Survivor" and all these other reality-survivor-island games all have a debt to pay to Mr Crusoe. ... Read review
The sole survivor of a shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe is stranded on an uninhabited island far ... more
away from any shipping routes. With patience and ingenuity, he transforms his island into a tropical paradise. For twenty-four years he has no human company, until one Friday, he rescues a prisoner from a boat of cannibals.
The sole survivor of a shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe is stranded on an uninhabited island far ... more
away from any shipping routes. With patience and ingenuity, he transforms his island into a tropical paradise. For twenty-four years he has no human company, until one Friday, he rescues a prisoner from a boat of cannibals.
Classic / British English (Available February 2008) Robinson Crusoe is at sea when there ... more
is a great storm. His ship goes down, and his friends die. The sea throws Crusoe onto a beach. He is on an island. But which island? Are there other people on it? And are they friendly? What will Crusoe do now?
Classic / British English (Available February 2008) Robinson Crusoe is at sea when there ... more
is a great storm. His ship goes down, and his friends die. The sea throws Crusoe onto a beach. He is on an island. But which island? Are there other people on it? And are they friendly? What will Crusoe do now?
Advantages: interesting idea Disadvantages: abysmal writing
...looking around the TV schedules, Robinson Crusoe still seems to hold a great influence in the 21st century. "Survivor" and all these other reality-survivor-island games all have a debt to pay to Mr Crusoe. In the last week I have seen a bar named after Crusoe in Majorca featured on "Passport to the Sun", Kate O'Mara wibbling on about the "Robinson Crusoe ideal" on Holiday Snaps...he is everywhere! And this book was published ... ...in London in 1660, writing Robinson Crusoe when he was nearly 60. By that time in his life he had:
* Lived through The Plague
* And The Great Fire of London
* Travelled worldwide
* Been declared bankrupt
* Fought in the "Glorious Revoultion"
* Been sent to jail
* Served as a secret agent and political journalist
You know, this man had some interesting stuff happening! ... more
This book is classified by Ciao under "Entertainment". A mistake, surely? I have had more entertaining times being bullied at school than reading this tripe. How it can be regarded as a "popular classic" is a mystery to me.
A bit of background first. I recently read "Treasure Island" for the first time and found it a really entertaining book, well written, exciting escapism. I thought "Robinson Crusoe" would be in the same vein - how wrong I was!
Just looking around the TV schedules, Robinson Crusoe still seems to hold a great influence in the 21st century. "Survivor" and all these other reality-survivor-island games all have a debt to pay to Mr Crusoe. In the last week I have seen a bar named after Crusoe in Majorca featured on "Passport to the Sun", Kate O'Mara wibbling on about the "Robinson Crusoe ideal" on Holiday Snaps...he is everywhere! And this book was published nearly 300 years ago! And it is crap!
This "great work of fiction" (ha!) was written by Daniel Defoe and tells the tale of the said Mr Crusoe, who is a rich man abandoned on a remote island miles from salvation after a shipwreck. Crusoe is completely alone for years on end. This in itself is a very interesting premise for a book, and it has the potential to be intriguing.
Unfortunately, Daniel Defoe has all the storytelling skills of your Auntie Mabel decsribing her 1948 trip to Cleethorpes. In fact, your Auntie Mabel is probably better. The entire book is reminiscent of the most boring person you know telling you about a boring holiday they had which lasted for 30 odd years. And they don't even have any photos.
How Defoe could possibly write such a dull book is beyond belief. He was born in London in 1660, writing Robinson Crusoe when he was nearly 60. By that time in his life he had:
Lived through The Plague
And The Great Fire of London
Travelled worldwide
Been declared bankrupt
Fought in the "Glorious Revoultion"
Been sent to jail
Served as a secret agent and political journalist
You know, this man had some interesting stuff happening! Lots of potential material there, I'm sure. But no, instead we have "Robinson Crusoe". I would have given up reading this book early on except a) I couldn't believe it would carry on as badly (it did) and b) I had to write this review for you fellow Ciao-ers!
I will try to summarise just why I dislike this book so much. Firstly, Defoe has no descriptive ability of any kind whatsoever. There's no metaphors, similes or even plain pleasant descriptions of anything to be found anywhere in the book. He doesn't fire your imagination at all, the text is just monotone and dull.
Secondly, as soon as Robinson Crusoe was stranded on the island I wanted him to die! He is not a nice character at all, just deadly dull. He sure as hell knows how to labour a point, if something's worth saying once, it's worth saying a thousand times. And he's so pleased with himself the whole time.
Defoe has no interesting points to make about Crusoe being completely isolated from the rest of mankind. We rarely see anything of Crusoe's emotions other than "the fence I built was really good". Crusoe's philosophising is limited to "I have all this money on the island but it is useless as there is nowhere to spend it - isn't it ironic?" Answer: no. Defoe is so enamoured with this bit of philosophy that he repeats it on at least 4 separate occasions during the book!
The chapter titles are handily set out at the beginning of the book - for example, between pages 126 and 142 we have "I Make Myself a Canoe". Doesn't sound promising. Even less so when you realise the ENTIRE CHAPTER is a description of Crusoe making a canoe. Other chapters focus on fence-building (woo!), pottery (yay!) and sowing grain! (I'm going to have to lie down!)
In one particularly laughable chapter, Crusoe sees a man in the distance on the beach - bear in mind this is the first person he has seen in over 20 years. The text goes something like this:
"In the distance I could see a man on the beach. He was standing there. Then he went away in a boat".
IS THAT IT? Wasn't he excited at all? It just beggars belief.
The book does liven up slightly when Man Friday arrives, although only in the way that a sleeping dog livens up if you poke it in the ribs. By that stage you are just glad that the book has nearly ended. When Crusoe eventually leaves the island and returns home to Britain we are offered no thoughts whatsoever on the emotions he feels on saying goodbye to the island and seeing his homeland for the first time in three decades. When he gets home he gets married, has two children and his wife dies WITHIN THE SPACE OF TWO SENTENCES!!! Incredible!
Robinson Crusoe ends with a threat : "All these things, with some very surprising incidents in some new adventures of my own, for ten years more, I may perhaps give a further account of hereafter."
Advantages: inspirational story. significant novel in english literature Disadvantages: can be tedious at times.
Robinson Crusoe is often celebrated as the first novel in English literature with Defoe utilizing material from a wide range of discourses in constructing the narrative of the novel. Perhaps at its most basic level, Robinson Crusoe is an adventure story which depicts one man’s struggle against physical adversity. However, Defoe has also made use of further sources including travel literature, conduct or guide literature and also the spiritual autobiography. ... ...As an adventure story, Robinson Crusoe is a tale of risky enterprises and daring feats. Defoe also uses a number of devices commonly associated with the genre of the adventure novel. Perhaps most noticeable is his use of dramatic irony throughout the novel, a common feature of the adventure story. The shipwreck of Crusoe at Yarmouth during the first part of the novel is one of many foreshadowings described by Defoe. One possible definition of the ...
nicolemorgan 05.05.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
Advantages: insight into colonialism Disadvantages: Really dull in places
...I first read Robinson Crusoe when I was about ten (Understanding not all of it.)and re read it several years ago as part of my English literature degree. From my childhood, I remember a fairly harmles story about a bloke who is shipwrecked and isforced to spend many years on an island rearing goats, growing corn and trying to make pots. Oh, and there was Man Friday. What I reemmber is a clasic children's story, and a book that is truggled to read.
... ...in a moment. Robinson Crusoe has attracted revisionary writing - for anyone who has not encountered this, it is a new genre in which modern writers retell old stories from a different perspective in order to cast new light on them. If you would like to challenge your ideas about Robinson Crusoe, I would recomend reading "Foe" by J.M. Cotzee (spelling uncertain)This is the tale of a woman who is cast up on a barren island where she finds a white man ...
Bryn_Pearson 05.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
Advantages: Has greatly influenced many modern stories and films Disadvantages: Quite difficult to read at times
...This time the book is Robinson Crusoe and despite the opinions of many other students I really enjoyed reading the book. Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1719. The book despite being written in his sixtieth year was Defoe's first novel and is quite often seen as the first English novel. Robinson Crusoe is a trader. His father is also a trader and he believes strongly in the middle-life and tries to impose this way of living ... ...some initial problems at sea Robinson prospers somewhat in new lands and becomes a reasonably wealthy man. All this however is soon to be thrown into disrepute. On a voyage to gather ships for his plantation in Brazil, Robinson becomes shipwrecked and ultimately marooned on a remote desert island far from the civilisation he has come to know so well. It is here, stripped of goods and money that he must rely on his own resourcefulness. The only limits ...
MI9to5 15.04.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
Advantages: rich in symbolism, giving a good insight into the zietgeist of the time Disadvantages: slow paced and often dull, Crusoe is often hard to sympathise with
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, depicts an 18th century trader gripped by a wanderlust who finds himself shipwrecked on a tropical island where he is forced to cultivate hidden survival skills, re-evaluating his own values in the process. The story is told retrospectively by Crusoe and written in a style which is extremely dry and thorough, and much of it is very tedious to read through. Crusoe busies himself not just with the business of survival ... ...like an afterthought. Robinson Crusoe is very rewarding and interesting when read as an observation on modern western political thought, and though hugely politically incorrect today, Defoe was of course writing at a time when slavery and the doctrine of manifest destiny were deemed widely acceptable. Whilst often slow-paced and dull, the book has a lot of depth and is worth the effort to read. Its enjoyable too, so long as you approach it with the ...
Burning_Darkness 12.06.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
Advantages: the whole story Disadvantages: odd traits of the main character
...and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Tarzan, Robinson Crusoe et al have left the confines of the book covers and become icons of our cultural heritage. Robinson Crusoe is the most successful of the lot, I‘ve read that the novel is more widespread than the bible, it has been translated into 110 (!) languages. I know that you know the basic facts of the story and that there isn‘t the danger of my spoiling the plot for you - after all the novel is told in the first ... ...to Defoe), I‘m sure a Robinson Kreutznaer wouldn‘t have conquered the world!
Robinson‘s father ‘designed him for the law‘, but the boy‘s only desire is to go to sea. He defies his father‘s warnings and runs away, during his first voyage he experiences such a horrible storm that he thinks he‘ll die, the captain tells him he shouldn‘t be a seafaring man. Yet Robinson is ashamed to go home and ventures out again. He‘s captured by pirates and made a ...
MALU 28.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
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Advantages: the original Dracula story . . . Disadvantages: . . . is not as good as I thought
of the chapter because I had forgotten whose diary I was reading. I could be generous and say that this prevailing tone keeps the novel together, it reads as if it were written in one piece, but I don?t want to be generous, I see it as a poor performance by the author.
I?m not impressed by the characters, either, they?re all flat, they never surprise. Women are sweet and weak and must be protected, men are manly and strong and protect women, but every now and then are allowed to show feelings. From Dr Seward?s diary: ?We men were all in tears now. There was no resisting them, and we wept openly.?
You may have guessed by now that I?m underwhelmed by the greater part of the novel, I?m reminded of what I?ve found out reading RobinsonCrusoe. DanielDefoe as well as Bram Stoker had a stroke of genius when they thought of Robinson and Dracula ...
Advantages: Powerful, Insightful, Provocative, Enchanting Disadvantages: I can't think of a single one
"Moll Flanders" is a difficult book for me to review without getting too carried away. If I could conjure up a sixth star from somewhere I really would. I first came across Moll in the form of an ITV television adaptation when I was in my late teens. I wasn't instantly besotted with the television programme in the same way I would later be with the original book however it was where my association began nevertheless.
Having been written by DanielDefoe (most famous for "RobinsonCrusoe") in 1722, "Moll Flanders" is really quite dated given how far on society has moved in the centuries since. Yet there's something about the way in which Defoe has thoroughly created a real spirit for Moll that is timeless and still relevant to modern women nearly three hundred years later.
For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Moll Flanders ...
Advantages: It's one of the earliest English novels? Disadvantages: ? but it's not the best
and killing those criminals seemed to be the only way. The heroine's mother was one of those prisoners who chose to be impregnated by a stranger, for being sent to the colonies is easier than being hanged. However, the daughter, Moll, seemed to be the victim in all this. She was deserted by her mother, taken into a special place that cared for children like her, then somewhat adopted by a rich family. Moll is not her real name; she had a name when she was a respectable girl who lives with a respectable family, yet she had to change it, for she had to steal and prostitute her body later on. She falls in love, she is deserted, she marries her own brother unknowingly, and many other pleasant and unpleasant adventures take place in "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders" by DanielDefoe, who also wrote RobinsonCrusoe.
Moll ...
