Rating: 
Summary: An exercise in patience.
Review: This book seems longer than it is, because it can be quite boring at times. As other reviewers have already noted, Defoe goes on in seemingly endless tirades describing how he builds things and finds food. There are some great passages in this book, though, and the overall story is enjoyable. It was the first English novel and should be respected as a classic, also. The overtly pro-Protestant stance was annoying and distracting to the overall storyline.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Perspective Will Help You Appreciate This More...
Review: I must admit that I wasn't "wowed" by this book after I finished it. I'll even confess that I was mostly glad to be done with it. However, I've learned not to make hasty judgements about works, to spend time reflecting and researching in hopes of broadening my appreciation and understanding. My research has helped me resolve questions regarding why Defoe stressed some things to tedium while leaving out other more interesting details. For example, as many have noted, he goes on and on and on about his projects on the island. The modern reader may tire of reading description after description about his cave and livestock and cooking methods. I thought to myself, "I know these people didn't have TV, but why would they want to know every cotton picking detail!" During my research, I learned that the reason for the detail was that Robinson was concerned about demonstrating mastery over his environment because that was a high priority during that time period. The most successful men learned how to work an environment to maximum efficiency. Men were concerned with conquering the land and establishing their dominance over others as well. This also explains why Robinson is more interested in learning how to live well on the island than in getting off the island. Then there were other times when the book started to get more interesting, only to find Defoe skip off to a new topic. For example, I kept waiting and waiting for Friday to enter the storyline, and I assumed that he would be a great buddy of Robinson's. I was disappointed to learn that Friday didn't enter unless very late in the novel and that even when he did, Robinson wasn't very attached or concerned about him as a person. Again, after doing some research, I learned that their relationship reflected standard ideas at the time regarding masters and servants. There was an established hierarchy back then that regulated human relationships back then, whereas things are much more fluid and democratic these days. The concept of individual human rights did simply not exist in the form it does today. So, although this work will never be my favorite, I have come to understand the people and values of that era better because of it. It's interesting to think about how so many basic ideas have changed since then.
Rating: 
Summary: Blat
Review: The problem with this book was its lack of plot. As the introduction to the edition I read stated, this book is merely a series of events strung together. As many of the reviewers before me have stated this book is obviously written in a different period (early 18th century) and by its word choice and sentence structure British. It is an excellent book to read to get almost a first hand accont of a man from nearly 300 years ago. It is a classic because of the enduring nature of Defoe's idea of a person stranded on a desert island (the most recent take on this idea being the hit television series "Survivor") But as for keeping one up at night with utter anticipation of what the next page holds.. No. As for an exciting book? No. Politically correct? No. This book should be read so one can see where the whole "desert island" idea began, an example of early British Literature, and for the sake of complaining to friends when Crusoe prays to God for 15 pages, followed by detailed instructions of how he made a pot, then a fence, then how he explored the island after he had already lived there for a decade and a half...
Rating:
Summary: A Captivating Book!
Review: This was a great book! It was a bit of a hard read, but I loved it!
Rating: 
Summary: One of the Greatest Works of All Time
Review: With Robinson Crusoe, Daniel DeFoe transformed liturature forever. In his time, the novel did not exist as we know it today. Through Robinson Crusoe, DeFoe helped created this genre that we love today. Many people judge this book by today's standards; however, DeFoe wrote this book long before today's novel completely developed. This book is not only great for its creativity as a new genre, but also is wonderful for its adventurous plot. If you've ever seen Gilligan's Island, read Jules Verne's Mysterious Island, or heard any stories about someone stranded on a desert island, you are just hearing another rehashed version of DeFoe's story.
Rating:
Summary: Survival by Thinking and Doing
Review: Robinson Crusoe is best taken at two levels, the literal adventure story of survival on an isolated island and as a metaphor for finding one's way through life. I recommend that everyone read the book who is willing to look at both of those levels. If you only want the adventure story, you may not be totally satisfied. The language, circumstances, and attitudes may put you off so that you would prefer to be reading a Western or Space-based adventure story with a more modern perspective. Few books require anyone to rethink the availability and nature of the fundamentals of life: Water, food, shelter, clothing, and entertainment. Then having become solitary in our own minds as a reader, Defoe adds the extraordinary complication of providing a companion who is totally different from Crusoe. This provides the important opportunity to see Crusoe's civilized limitations compared to Friday's more natural ones. The comparisons will make for thought-provoking reading for those who are able to overcome the stalled thinking that the educated, civilized route is always the best. One of the things that I specially liked about the book is the Crusoe is an ordinary person in many ways, making lots of mistakes, and having lots of setbacks. Put a modern Superhero (from either the comic books, adventure or spy novels, or the movies) into this situation, and it would all be solved in a few minutes with devices from the heel of one's shoe. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I liked the trial-and-error explorations. They seemed just like everyday life, and made the book's many lessons come home to me in a more fundamental way. Have a good solitary trip through this book!
Rating:
Summary: A must-read for environmentalists
Review: Probably the finest critique of Defoe's landmark novel is the one appearing in a 1950's issue of MAD magazine. Defoe inadvertantly portrays all that is immoral and hypocritical in the western man's approach to nature and the environment. Crusoe is cruel to animals (on pikes, he impales the bodies of little birds with the intention of frightening others from his crops). He is wasteful of natural resources (whittles down one large tree to make a shelf). He is an outright coward (he is terribly afraid of a goat). This rather rambling, disorganized book is nonetheless a sharp indictment of man's supposed superiority over nature. Fascinating fodder for the student of ecological literary criticism.
Rating: 
Summary: clueless?
Review: I did not enjoy this book at all...though i had to finish it because it was required by my school. You can barely understand it and the majority of the time the author leaves you cluless. Reading this book will give u hours of boredom. Another thing is the book goes on and on and on and on and on...and just never stops. The sentences in the book are more for the people at Defoe's time. I would not recomend this book to anyone at all.
Rating:
Summary: Literary Analysis of Robinson Crusoe
Review: This wonderful saga of survival and self determination is about an English gentlemen who was only looking for adventure on the high seas, but found himself shipwrecked and alone on a deserted island to live almost a half of a lifetime in a solitaire world with only the prescence of Daniel DeFoe's excellent penmanship to follow him. {Backed by great historic and geographic knowledge for the time (1719), DeFoe adds perfect setting, and sets moods that add realistic life to the story.}
Rating:
Summary: Better than any of its spin-offs
Review: Well, this book was a little better than Swiss Family Robinson. While it was only a little more plausible, I felt that it had a nicer writing style than the other classic. It had its moments, like when he first found Friday, or went sailing around the island. I also thought that it had far too much speaking and far too little action. Despite his having enough ammunition to stave off the entire U.S. Army for a month, he hardly ever fired a shot. He was rarely in much danger, and "god" continuously grants him things that make his survival a hundred times more easy. It often skips sections when he is in the most danger of starving, like when he says that he would not get any food from his crops until the third year of his imprisonment, and two pages later is eating corn he grew. This leaves the reader wondering what he ate the entire time that he wasn't eating corn. Even with all of its failings, I found Robinson Crusoe an endearing character. I was rooting for him to survive the whole time. There were also stretches here and there where the book was hard to put down. Even so, I would recommend that you should think about what you want in a story before you buy this one. There are better books out there, like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
| 
