Robinson Crusoe by Defoe, Daniel

This book was written in 1719 and it was inspired by a true story of a man (Alexander Selkirk) who was rescued after having spent 3 years on a Pacific Island in 1709. The book is written in the first person as a diary of the life of Robinson Crusoe. The language and phrasing can be a little odd at times because it is a very old book but I do not think it is too difficult to understand. It was the fist "shipwreck and rescue" type of book and many others were written later on the same theme.

I did not like the book as much as I thought I would. It is very moralistic and preaching in the beginning, going on about how these bad things would not have happened if he had been a dutiful son and listened to his father and about how much he regrets the folly of his ways etc and it was a bit boring. Once he is on the island it does improve but it was still not as exciting as I had imagined it would be. There are good bits - the details about how he builds his camp and manages to survive are good and the bits with the cannibals are a bit sickening but fascinating.

Another thing that I did not like was the slavery. This was written in a time when black people were not treated well and his attitude to the islander Friday is offensive these days. It makes you disgusted with Robinson Crusoe; the way he enjoys Friday almost worshipping him and the way he immediately gives so much of the work to Friday and tries to force him to change his faith. Even the name Friday seems to indicate how little he thought of this man; he could not even give him a proper name - just named him after the day on which he found him!

I guess it is a good book to read because it makes you think about these things and it is a record of the history of Daniel Defoe's society. It is also basically a good story but as I said a few passages get a bit boring. I do not think that Defoe was a great writer though - good but not great - not like Charles Dickens, J K Rowling or Tolkien.

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