Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

fiction/literature, (c)1719, 320pp
rating: ***

When I was an undergrad, I read a couple of his other books (Moll Flander and Roxana). I remembered really liking them both, so when I saw Robinson Crusoe in the far depths of my bookshelf at my parent's house, I picked it up and brought it back to NYC to be read. Robinson Crusoe is the original castaway, a man who is shipwrecked on a semi-deserted island for over thirty years. The book chronicles his early life, the circumstances that led him to become shipwrecked, how he learned to live on the island and his eventual salvation.

This was easily my least favorite of Defoe's books, which is interesting because I think it is the most famous. Defoe is fond of the anti-hero - people who are victims of circumstance and life that eventually find redemption from their fall. However, Robison Crusoe is not as dynamic as his female leads and his fall is not as great. Therefore, the "redemption" seems less like a redemption, and more like just a plain rescue. Also, too much of the book was devoted to the minutia of living on the island. He spends the majority of his time communing with goats and pontificating about God. I would not really recommend this book, especially to people who are new to early english writers.