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Robinson Crusoe (Modern Library Classics) |  | Author: Daniel Defoe
Publisher: Modern Library
Category: Book
List Price: $7.95
Buy Used: $0.63
as of 3/13/2010 06:37 PST details
You Save: $7.32 (92%)
Seller: betterworldbooks_
Rating:  107 reviews
Sales Rank: 145288
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0375757325
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.5
EAN: 9780375757327
ASIN: 0375757325
Publication Date: June 12, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780375757327 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Daniel Defoe relates the tale of an English sailor marooned on a desert island for nearly three decades. An ordinary man struggling to survive in extraordinary circumstances, Robinson Crusoe wrestles with fate and the nature of God.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 107
 PLEASE READ THIS! January 8, 2010
L. Wandell (hawaii)
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
Boring, tedious, verbose, rambling, yawn. He could have told this story in about 50 pages. A real snoozer.
I understand that is an important work for it's place in history but seriously--YAWN!
 Founder of the Adventure Genre August 31, 2009
parchment girl
Title: Robinson Crusoe
Author: Daniel Defoe
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Barnes & Noble
ISBN: 1-59308-169-3
October 2004, $7.95
Genre: Fiction/Classic
"In his own words, Robinson Crusoe tells how a terrible storm drowned all his shipmates and left him marooned on a deserted island. Forced to overcome despair, doubt, and self-pit, he struggles to create a life for himself in the wilderness. From practically nothing, Crusoe painstakingly learns how to make pottery, grow crops, domesticate livestock, and build a house. His many adventures are recounted in vivid detail, including a fierce battle with cannibals and his rescue of Friday, the man who becomes his trusted companion."
~from the jacket flap
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There are two essential plots in Robinson Crusoe, the primary plot being external - his travels and adventures, and the subplot being internal - his search for and discovery of faith. There are also two different scales on which to weigh this book. The one most commonly used is that which measures a book's literary value. It is undeniable that Robinson Crusoe made a tremendous contribution to the adventure novel genre... in fact, it was this book which founded said genre and inspired a host of other Crusoe-like tales throughout the following centuries including such bestsellers as The Swiss Family Robinson and Lord of the Flies. In a sense, Defoe unleashed the human desire for adventure, simple living, and an escape from society - a sanctuary, Crusoe's island. But what Defoe started, later authors improved upon. Minus the old English, Crusoe is still difficult to thoroughly enjoy simply because a great deal of the book moves at an excruciatingly slow pace. Over a third of the book is spent recounting in minute detail Crusoe's daily tasks while living on the island completely alone. The first bit of the book is enjoyable enough, the last part is certainly the best, and some of Crusoe's survival techniques are worth reading about in detail, but not all of them. Not over a hundred pages of them. If I were anything less than a compulsive reader, I would have stopped around the hundred page mark and missed out on the fine ending. Overall, Crusoe's tale is fascinating and enlightening, however, that middle section is just too tedious.
The second scale by which this book can be weighed is that of morality. The whole book is, in essence, about a man searching for purpose. He at first abandons home and family to go seek it on the high seas and ends up finding it in the place he would have least expected. Twenty some odd years completely isolated from human company on a desolate island with no one to talk to and plenty of struggle to survive opens Crusoe's heart to God, which gives his whole experience true purpose, an element lacking in so many adventure tales. This part of the novel is often overlooked, but deserves recognition.
*** A couple of notes about the B&N edition: First off, I am not at all fond of the introduction by L.J. Swingle. Swingle obviously dislikes any sort of religious thinking and comments that "a basic question arises from reading Defoe's novel is whether we should take the book to be somewhat akin to an upgraded version of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1678, 1684), a story designed finally, like an adventure-coated pill, to cultivate our own religious consciousness." If you ask me, our friend, Mr. Swingle, sounds unattractively cynic. Secondly, I dislike the fact that Barnes & Noble found it necessary to include Karl Marx's review of Crusoe in the commentary section at the back of the book. Suffice it to say that Marx completely distorts and borderline mutilates the values and purpose of the work as a whole. I think B&N could have found a more constructive commentary to enlighten the minds of readers. I realize that this is a matter of conjecture.
Part of: The Robinson Crusoe Trilogy
Robinson Crusoe (Book One)
The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Book Two)
Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Book Three)
If you liked this book try... Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Kim by Rudyard Kipling
 Realistic account of a man lost at sea July 21, 2009
Patrick Aubin (Chicago, IL)
I recommend this story to any person apprehensive in quenching their desire for adventure. It's a story for those people who want to follow some vague feeling of being pulled into the reality and pushed away from the artificial confines of society. It's a story for people who champion intuition over reason, courage over fear.
This is a story about a person like that. A man who bowed and politely backed away from the expectations and advice of others and into the sublimity of the unknown. Robinson Crusoe's decision ultimately led him shipwrecked, the owner of a very successful tobacco farm, befriending savages, and defending himself from cannibals, mutineers and wolves.
I'd love to say this a story of a principled and fearless man. A story about a man in love or about a strong man. Perhaps at times Robinson Crusoe is that man.
Overall this is an epic about an man in motion and transformation. Robinson Crusoe's lust for adventure brought him to and island where he would live alone from almost thirty years.
'Bent upon seeing the world....' July 16, 2009
B. Morse (Boston, MA United States)
I often wonder how many people, like myself, have a list (as well as a shelf, or two, or more) of classic novels, known the world over, that they 'plan' to read one day...Robinson Crusoe has, for me, long been one of those novels...but now I can finally claim to have read it.
Upon completing this book, it's easy to understand why it's been hailed as such a classic for so long. An intriquing premise, to put a man alone on a deserted island when he left his home behind to travel the world instead of being trapped in one place - just to find himself trapped in another. Easy prose and an expedient passage of time make this one of the most accessible 'classics' I've ever read, which also, to my mind, lends to the thought that it's 'young adult' fiction, as it would appeal to not only the interest but the intellect of a juvenile reader.
However...don't be fooled...Robinson Crusoe is very much an adult tale with adult situations and conflicts that require adult resolution. Beyond the shipwreck, despair, and eventual acquiescense of Robinson to his surroundings, and the manner in which he builds and outfits his new home, Robinson faces dangers from all sides in his island 'isolation'....beset upon by animals, savages, and even cannibals, Robinson Crusoe strives to be master of his surroundings and his own savior as he continually changes his habits in order to adapt to newfound threats to his safety and well-being. Robinson is faced with the choice of 'kill or be killed', and how that might conflict with his Christian values, as well as the task of explaining to someone how to kill and eat a living being (specifically, man) is amoral and wrong, despite the regular devouring of animal flesh to survive.
As I said, time passes quickly in this surprisingly short (300 pages!) novel that spans more than two decades of his life. There are numerous reviews that contain more plot synopsis to be had, so rather than re-tread familiar ground, I'll stick with what surprised me most about the book, having heard of it for years before I picked it up to read.
1. The famous 'footprint' scene....this neither thrilled nor overwhelmed me, as others have described it...I found it to be very 'matter of fact' in its place in the tale, as I found Robinson's reaction to finding it. True, it necessitated changes in his habits, and yet for something that others make so much of, I found it to be much ado about nothing, really. Maybe I'm just not reading enough into it.
2. 'Friday' does not appear until 2/3 of the way through the novel. Being one of the most famous 'sidekicks' in literary history, I was surprised to not meet him sooner and have him play even a larger role in the story.
3. The way the passing of time is described so nonchalantly, it's almost as if you are reading about a mere month or two, not year after year of isolation. When Crusoe sums up the number of years he spent on the island, it gave me pause to realize that so much time had actually passed in this story.
This is a wonderful read...chock full of old fashioned moral lessons to be gleaned...which I'll leave up to individual readers to either try to ascertain from it, or not.
Regardless of your reason for picking it up, do pick up Robinson Crusoe...it won't let you down.
Amazingly enjoyable - totally modern June 8, 2009
Claus Hetting (Gentofte, Copenhagen Denmark)
It has been a long time since I last enjoyed reading a "classic" as much as this. This novel is superbly put together and completely rewards its status as an all-time classic. At the same time it is the mother of all survival stories of any type - including the so-called "reality" TV shows aplenty (which are not reality at all but a twisted form of fiction) - and it is without a doubt still the best. Also this work is surprisingly modern in its style (despite of course its oldish language) and written in a documentary style very much in the way that a modern day journalist would probably do it. It gives the book excellent forward momentum. Last but not least I found this book really funny. I think that's probably because of Defoe's fantastic sense of self-criticism in the narrative . Impressive and worth reading for anyone who likes a good story.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 107
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