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    Robinson Crusoe: Timeless Classics
    Robinson Crusoe: Timeless Classics
    Robinson Crusoe: Timeless Classics
    Audiobook (abridged)1 hour

    Robinson Crusoe: Timeless Classics

    Written by Daniel Defoe

    Narrated by Saddleback Educational Publishing

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Shipwrecked! A young Englishman finds himself stranded on a small island in the middle of nowhere. For 24 years he survives—and even thrives. How will his life change now that his island has a visitor?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSaddleback Educational Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2011
    ISBN9781612475189
    Robinson Crusoe: Timeless Classics
    Author

    Daniel Defoe

    Daniel Defoe was born at the beginning of a period of history known as the English Restoration, so-named because it was when King Charles II restored the monarchy to England following the English Civil War and the brief dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell. Defoe’s contemporaries included Isaac Newton and Samuel Pepys.

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    Reviews for Robinson Crusoe

    3.5/5

    109 ratings105 reviews

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    • 2/5
      he waited 20-something years to meet Friday. the first teo chapters were packed with action and then he was alone on his island. turns out that u need at least two people in a story and to create conflict so that part was just slow for me to read. the last three chapters are packed again with lots of actions and people on the island.
    • 4/5
      Robinson Crusoe is the original 'deserted on an island' story. It has everything you could hope for, except perhaps the beautiful island princess. Crusoe seems from the start to be doomed for misfortune. He says it himself, that after his first disaster at sea when his ship sinks in a storm, that he should have headed straight back to his parent's home and perused another way of life. But something drove Crusoe to the sea. His misadventures had only begun with the sinking of his first ship. HE finds himself taken captive and serves several years as a slave. When he finally escapes it seems that Crusoe's troubles are over. He sails to Brazil with his savoir of a captain. The captain takes Crusoe under his wing and helps Crusoe establish himself and learn the ways of trade and life in the Brazils. Crusoe is able to build a life for himself and amasses a fine amount of land and wealth. He is unable, however, to resist the opportunity to make even more money in the slave trade. It is on this expedition that Crusoe is famously ship wrecked and begins his 27 year stay on the island. The majority of the story tells of his industrious life on the island, making caves and groves of trees respectable habitations, as well as many adventures in exploring island. It is on one of these explorations that after 20 years on the island Crusoe discovers he is not the only human to use the island. In fact, the island is used by none other than cannibals from the mainland! Many adventures ensue from this discovery. Ultimately, through a delightful twist of fate, Crusoe is able to save a captain's life (just a captain had saved his so many years ago) and return to his old way of life. Though there is not much in the way of dialogue, this book keeps a pleasant pace and engages the imagination of the reader.
    • 4/5
      Read this, expecting to know the story, since it is a tale told all over the world. Was happily surprised to feel the pace of Crusoe's routines, and all the details of everyday life only made the story more believable. Wonderful read. Read Robert P. Marzec's "Enclosure, Colonization, and the Robinson Crusoe syndrome" parallel with Defoe's book - very interesting analysis. Text published in "boundary", 2:29:2, 2002 (Duke Uni. Press).
    • 4/5
      while pursuing my MA in English Lit at the University of Central Florida in 1988-90, they told me the first novel was Pamela by Sterne, 1749. I beleive this 1724 book by DeFoe was the first novel.
    • 3/5
      Published in 1719 and certainly a classic adventure story, but its inconsistencies don’t stand up to much scrutiny, and it isn’t particularly well written. The main inspiration for the tale was the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who had been left for four years on an uninhabited island after arguing with his captain, then rescued, and his story told in 1712. Defoe expanded on this of course, among other things stranding Crusoe for 28 years, and having him meet ‘Friday’, an aboriginal who he then (ugh) made a servant and converted to the ‘True God’. Friday is not treated as a person, he’s more like other ‘material’ Crusoe finds, but this was par for the course at this time in history.Aside from the adventure story, Defoe was exploring man’s nature and his reaction to adversity, topics larger than the story itself. In one scene, Crusoe lists ‘evil’ aspects to his condition (‘I am cast upon a horrible desolate island, void of all hope of recovery’), and corresponding good aspects (‘But I am alive, and not drown’d as all my ship’s company was’). I don’t think there was anything particularly insightful here, though the struggle for survival and events like finding the footprint are iconic and lasting images.Quotes:On accepting fate:“I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them; because they see and covet something that He has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”And:“These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of Providence to me, and very thankful for my present condition, with all its hardships and misfortunes; and this part also I cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt in their misery to say, “Is there any affliction like mine!” Let them consider how much worse the cases of some people are, and their case might have been, if Providence had thought fit.”On money:“He told me that it was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortune on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me, or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found by long experience was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labor and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind.”On religion:“I had rather be delivered up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the priests, and be carried into the Inquisition.”On youth:“...how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, viz. that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not ashamed for the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men.”
    • 4/5
      Started rereading this as a refresher before I pick up Foe - and wow, is it a different book now. When I was a kid, I read this at the crux between my nautical fiction craze and my self-sufficiency craze, so naturally the seagoing and the invention with which Crusoe builds his encampment interested me most. This time around, though, I'm fascinated by his descriptions of living with and without fear of different varieties, and by what is middle-class and middle-aged about those fears. Very different. Hm.
    • 3/5
      So first off I should say that I skimmed the last 150 pages of Robinson Crusoe. I enjoyed the part about him stranded on the island and learning to survive. I found all of the travels afterwards tedious and boring. I've often heard that saying that the more you travel the more you notice how alike people are rather than their differences. Not so for Crusoe. In the beginning he seems pretty accepting of everyone, then as he turns to religion he spreads the word of God, but by the end he is attempting to burn towns of "savages" and "heathens" and destroy their idols. Also, one more annoyance in this book was the use of the word viz. over and over again.
    • 4/5
      I can see where this book would have been very unique for its time. It was a very enjoyable (and in some ways an educational) read, but I just kept being amazed at how unadventurous old Robinson Crusoe really was - i.e. 9 months on the island before he even thought to take a stroll around to the other side to see what was actually on this island he was living on???
    • 4/5
      I have never read a book like Robinson Crusoe. The ambiance of the book is only enhanced by both the time period it was written in as well as the books significance. Robinson Crusoe is one of the very first novels, and set a benchmark for other books to come. I had my doubts about this book. Upon initial visual judgment, I thought this book would be too long. Knowing when the book was published, I assumed Robinson Crusoe would bore me, as did Wuthering Heights (no offense I love the song. Without the book there wouldn’t have been the song). Then I started to actually read the book. It was ok. The storyline at the time seemed all too familiar. Some young fellow ignores his, or her, parent’s wishes and goes gallivanting off only to face a series of challenges that eventually lead him/her to some sort of revelation. Than again, one must considered that this was the “original” novel, for which countless stories used as their basis. Also, I wasn’t too found of Mr. Crusoe, who seemed a bit too focused on his own dreams. Furthermore, I felt that Robinson Crusoe lacked a great deal of depth. However, the more I progressed, the more I began to see; the hidden meanings, the important ones. Religion, the “human condition”(we were born to be our own destroyer), and justice are a few themes that this novel weaves into its pages. Survival obviously became the centerpiece. I love survival. I’m all for “Man vs. Wild”, “Survivor Man”, and “Cast Away”. Naturally, I found the latter part of the novel very appealing. Seeing Robinson Crusoe survive and persevere would lead me to appreciate the character. He earned my respect. I would love to give you examples of exactly how he earned my respect, but I don’t want to ruin the book for you. The call of the wild will always be a part of me, as it became a part of Crusoe. Through the many page of Robinson Crusoe, I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t until I finished the book that I realized how great of a milestone this book was. Without a publication date printed on it, I would have taken it as an early 20th century novel. It turns out that this book is much older. However, it manages to present new ideas.
    • 2/5
      “It is never too late to be wise.” No doubt like many others I knew this story from its techni-colour reincarnations but had actually never read the original so had no idea how Robinson Crusoe got to the island or even off it. As such felt that it was time that I put that right even if it was tough to get those versions out of my mind.This book was originally published nearly 300 years ago in 1719 and is regarded as one of the first English novels, its even based on a true story but unfortunately for me it is showing the signs of age.The book explores many issues including religion and colonialism and it was interesting that the first word that Crusoe teaches Friday is 'master' but the book is so top heavy with all the action being either at the beginning or the very end with little happening in between and despite living on the island for over 20 years on his own Crusoe never fully explored it which seems a bit of a stretch to put it mildly. It also seems amazing that the island was not visited by another human being for 20+ years given the ending when it seemed to suddenly appear on the tourist must to list.On the whole I enjoyed the beginning and the end where it felt like a boy's own tale yet found the middle ponderous and disappointing which has affected my general opinion overall.
    • 4/5
      This book blew me away! I was amazed how relevant it was to present time. It was not dusty/stuffy at all. I guess I was expecting Swiss Family Robinson or something. Instead I got this wonderful story of a man wrestling with his faith. Way.Cool.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful, seminal achievement by one of the greatest masters of prose ever.
    • 4/5
      I love this classic tale. I pick it up occasionally and read it again; it always feels like I am meeting an old friend once more.
    • 3/5
      I had a really hard time getting into this book. The pacing was very inconsistent. Some sections were fast paced and exciting, others were dull and seemed pointless. The writing itself made reading this incredibly dry. Constantly repeating himself and reminding you of things you had just read as if his story was that easily forgotten. I understand this was written in the early 18th century and that styles were different back then, i just can't get past how hard it was to stay focused on the story, esp. when sentences would take up entire pages.
    • 5/5
      Wilkie Collins put in the pen of Gabriel Betteredge the following words: "I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad — ROBINSON CRUSOE. When I want advice — ROBINSON CRUSOE. In past times when my wife plagued me; in present times when I have had a drop too much — ROBINSON CRUSOE." At once both caricature and encomium, and each a fitting response.
    • 2/5
      I have never experienced thing like Crosoe.His ship goes down, and everryone dies.Crusoe is on island.If I am on island by alone, maybe I cannot live.After reading this book , I thought I should live strongly like him.
    • 4/5
      I just reread this book, and it is amazing to me that it is as relevant today as it was when it was written in the late 1600's! I think sometimes people are expecting this to be an adventure story, but truly it is the theme "man vs. himself." Robinson Crusoe has to come to grips with the fact that his choices got him to the point he was in life, good or bad. Loved it.
    • 4/5
      I didn't think I really needed to read this book. After all the plot line is pretty well known and the survival story of being stuck on a desert island has been repeated in many other books as well as used multiple times in Hollywood blockbusters. And somehow I was under the impression that when Crusoe discovers another human being on this island the phrase 'Thank God it's Friday' was uttered and became a standard phrase to express the end of a long week as well as a chain restaurant (that last part I don't think is true, or at least I missed the line when reading the book).

      But this book is definitely worth reading. It is the original castaway story and I found it easy to read, very exciting, and was surprised to realize that many of my assumptions about the story were wrong. I loved the ingenuity that Crusoe employed in surviving from capturing and taming wild goats to devising methods of shelter. But the biggest surprise was the inner dialog and philosophy scattered throughout the book. Crusoe was one of the earliest practitioners of keeping a gratitude journal. Rather than moaning and complaining about being stuck on an island and the only survivor, he was grateful for the few good things he had.

      The book definitely exhibits some pretty strong racial prejudices. Although it would not be acceptable today, it seemed to reflect the time that it was written.

      Surprisingly good book to read!
    • 4/5
      This book was probably the first true novel, in the modern sense, published in the English language (1719). Much of the book details Crusoe's attempts to survive on his island, with quite detailed accountants of his efforts to grow crops, domesticate goats and make cooking utensils and other tools. Although this may sound quite dull, the writing style for the most part pulled me through. The narrative is quite positive and Crusoe comes to adopt a positive mental attitude by counting his blessings in terms of the articles he salvages from the shipwreck, the fact that the hulk is still accessible, and that there are no wild animals on his island. This is of course the original cannibal savages v. civilised white Anglo Saxon story, now a racist cliche, but then a worldview that all the book's readers would surely have shared nearly three centuries ago. Finally, I think the narrative should have ended when he came back to England, but instead there is a longish section on his property and financial arrangements and his fighting wolves in France, that seemed to lack a clear purpose.
    • 5/5
      One of the best young adult books ever written. Deserted islands and shipwrecks started with Dafoe.
    • 5/5
      It's a classic; how could I not give it 5 stars. I was delighted to discover how very readable the book is despite the language of early 1700s. Also surprised that the two main themes of the book are mechanical and spiritual. Mechanical, in the sense that there is a lot of practical detail about how Crusoe creates a living from the bits and pieces he rescues from the wrecked ship. And spiritual, in his struggles to come to terms with life alone (until near the end) on an island (not desert, btw) and how considers his relationship with God under the circumstances. Doubtless one of today's editors would have asked for a rewrite to reduce the book in half, but the rambling detail is part of its classic charm. Read slowly and it's easy to be with Crusoe for a LONG time.
    • 3/5
      Adventure n'that. With parrots and goats. A really good read.
    • 4/5
      Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked on an island after his slave ship runs aground. The rest of his crew soon die and Robinson is left to fend for himself. Robinson soon encounters a group of savages, one of which he befriends and names Friday, and the two work in tandem to get themselves off the island.Defoe’s work provides opportunity for various topics of discussion, ranging from the power of religion to the reconciliation of cultural differences. It is also an excellent book for examining the development of the English language, as the writing style is quite a bit different than most of the texts your students may have encountered.
    • 3/5
      In my eyes the only thing remarkable about this tale is the notion that it is purportedly one of the first English novels. It is an adventure story set in the 1600s about Englishman Robinson Crusoe's experiences as a sailor and his survival alone on an uninhabited island after surviving a ship wreck. While I found portions of the story captivating, too much of it is burdened with excrutiatingly detailed passages of Crusoe's life on the island. I learned some practical things about survival, and I found notable the themes of self preservation, human perseverence, and resourcefulness. It would be unfair to condemn the book too harshly for being a product of its time, which includes all the nastiness of European imperialism and the arrogance and prejudices that came with it, but I found the attitude toward the "savages" (oh, that would be the natives of South America) difficult to suffer and remain on the side of the story's protagonist. Defoe would have best served the novel had he omitted the detailed chapters that chronicled Crusoe's return journey through the Continent and instead concluded simply with his return to England.Overall the novel is inconsistent in its pace and bores the reader with trivialities. The notion that Crusoe found a newfound faith in God on the island and proceeded directly thereafter to so gracelessly enslave a native isn't so much surprising as it is inadvertantly satirical.Three stars only because of the historical significance of this, one of the first, novels in the English language. Otherwise, I would have given it two stars.
    • 3/5
      I do think this is a book worth reading at least once (thus the three stars), although it certainly is no favorite. One thing it isn't though, even though I've seen the novel categorized as such--it's not a tale that would appeal to children in language or content--at least not in unabridged, unbowlderized, unillustrated editions. The novel is a mix of the good, the bad and the very ugly.Good -- The introduction calls this book "the first English novel" and that alone is good reason for anyone interested in the form to read it. And for the most part, it's a very engaging read which surprised me in something so early in the form--it probably helped I read an edition that modernized the spelling and punctuation. Crusoe's first person voice pulled me in, and there's a lot of evocative detail that brings the story alive. The afterward in the edition I read speaks of one of the fascinations of the tale is "technique." Isolated on an island in the Caribbean, at first with nothing but one knife, a pipe and a bit of tobacco, Crusoe recapitulates the entire process of civilization. First salvaging tools and stores from his wrecked ship, then mastering everything from carpentry, basket-weaving and pottery to small scale animal husbandry and agriculture and more. Parts of this book makes for great action/adventure reading--truly suspenseful parts that play like a film in my mind, such as as the chapters dealing with quelling a mutiny. It's not overlong either, and I found it a quick read. Bad -- The narrative at times violates the rule "show, don't tell" and the style is almost too spare at times and too taken up with minutia. The book was once praised for it's piety but to modern ears, even to devout Christian ones, I think, would come across as unduly preachy in parts--and that very preachiness complicates what I find most problematical in the novel. (See, "Very Ugly" below.) And my goodness, Defoe uses the word "Providence" more often than Meyer's Twilight uses "sparkle." (That would be a lot.) The last three chapters of a few dozen pages is anticlimactic, tedious and pointless after all that came before. Very Ugly -- In a word: slavery. I really am willing to make allowances for the times--the novel was published in 1719--but it's an issue from the first that got increasingly more disturbing. Crusoe himself before being shipwrecked on that island had been captured by pirates and sold into slavery and endures in that condition for two years. He escapes with a fellow slave who helps him quite a lot--then Crusoe turns around and sells the boy into slavery. Crusoe's brought to Brazil where he becomes a slave owning planter. The very voyage that shipwrecked him was for the purpose of bringing slaves back to Brazil. And I could have set that aside... Except... Well, Crusoe has a spiritual reawakening on the island where he bewails his sins--and they turn out to be his "original sin" in disobeying his father by going out to sea--and not being religiously observant in matters such as the sabbath. Slavery is certainly not enumerated. And then there's Friday. "Man Friday" is a word for servant because of this novel. For two-thirds of the novel Crusoe is alone. He observes that "cannibals" come ashore periodically with victims, and decides that he'll rescue one, or even two or three to "make slaves" of them. He does exactly that, and especially in the chapters dealing with his turning a man he names Friday into a servant, teaching him to call Crusoe "master" and converting Friday into a Christian, I truly wished I could reach into the pages and throttle Crusoe.I found the treatment of the whole issue more maddening than in any book I can ever remember reading. Including Gone With the Wind by the way. Lots of people decry that book as racist and as an apologia for slavery. I love Gone With the Wind though, despite those problems and found it far easier to enjoy. I think part of what made it easier to tolerate is that Gone With the Wind was written and published after slavery was history and set in an era where there was great opposition to it that would lead to its abolition. Proponents of slavery at least were on the defensive. Reading Robinson Crusoe, it seems this was an era where no one had a clue slavery was wrong at all. Forgetting the Sabbath? Quel horror! Trafficking in fellow human beings? Situation normal. Never mind that the whole characterization of Friday was enough to set my teeth on edge. Although in a way I suppose all this is all the more reason to read the book. The mindset says volumes about how the slave trade was able to be established and endure so long. No moral brakes on the practice. At least if Defoe reflects his times faithfully.For what it's worth, a friend who is an academic in the field of literature tells me there had been objections and opposition to slavery from the outset--and that critics themselves are undecided whether to take Crusoe straight up or whether his views reflect the author's. Apparently Defore is well-known for writing unsavory and repulsive characters who wind up on top--as in Moll Flanders about a thief and prostitute. So maybe we're meant to want to throttle Crusoe. Just reinforces though--this isn't some sweet children's book.
    • 4/5
      A brilliant book that set the standard for the Desert Island Genre. It's a classic, and a great read for both adults and children, much better than endless Enid Blyton I read at that age.
    • 3/5
      Started out quite interesting - then made the mistake of reading the historical basis for the story before finishing (Selkirk's Island). With the illusion shattered, I couldn't get back to the adventure with any gusto. :(
    • 4/5
      I've loved this story since my teens. The illustrations by Fritz Kredel are nice full-color plates.
    • 3/5
      Robinson Crusoe is claimed to be the first novel written in English, published in 1719, and is a fictional autobiography of Crusoe who is from an average family in England at that time, and spends 28 years stranded on a remote desert island.I found this book really dragged, & it is quite repetitive. Crusoe never really has any exciting adventures until way into the book. For the first quarter or so of the book it is mostly an account of daily life and the difficulties of making ink and paper, learning to make pottery & raising goats etc. It gets some what better when Crusoe rescues Man Friday from some cannibals and their relationship is interesting and compelling. Crusoe is forced to be open minded because he has no one else around except his parrot. He is able to understand the dignity of Friday and look upon him eventually as an equal in some ways although still a servant. Crusoe teaches Friday English & converts him to Christianity. I liked the fact that it questions our relationship with those we feel are beneath us in whatever way.
    • 3/5
      The storyline of this novel is intriguing enough, but since the medium was so new, Defoe's writing leaves much to be desires. Crusoe's constant listing and mood swings are hard to get through after a while.