Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe

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About Book

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up-Defoe's classic novel of shipwreck and survival, now nearly 300 years old, is abridged competently in this recording. The flavor of the 18th century language is retained, but the plot moves along at a pace more appealing to 21st century ears. The reader, Martin Shaw, has a pleasant voice, but unfortunately tends to trail off at the ends of sentences, losing whole words. As with all abridgements, large sections of the story and entire characters are omitted, but since most of the book tells of Crusoe's solitary sojourn on the island, this is not a major problem. This version is no substitute for the original, but it would be a supplemental purchase in libraries where abridgements are popular.
Sarah Flowers, Santa Clara County Library, Morgan Hill, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Though sometimes tedious and moralistic, Crusoe has become an emblem of human survival in a lonely and hostile world. In this recording British reader Tom Casaletto preserves Defoe's tone and point of view with perfect fidelity. There isn't much dialogue until the end of the book when Friday appears, but that is fully and richly voiced. If, like me, you haven't visited Crusoe's island since your youth, this excellent recording is the perfect opportunity for a return trip. P.E.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Russ and Beth Ouellette
We recently purchased three of your classics series hardcovers for our 15 year old daughter's birthday, and she was estatic. The books are beautifully done, and it was nice to see that they used the original versions' formatting. We anxiously look forward to any new volumes you may add. If we might make a suggestion for a future addition to this series, please consider Treasure Island, as this would be a most welcome addition to her new collection. Thanks for producing a wonderful product.

Publisher Comments
ROBINSON CRUSOE is read as eagerly today as when it was first published... The book has attained a high place in the literature of the world, and justly so. --MASTERPLOTS

Book Description
Recreations of two of the world's most unforgettable and enthralling adventure stories: one about storm and shipwreck, pirates and mutiny, the other a tale of a fantastical underwater world of mythical monsters and a mysterious sea captain. The action-packed storylines retain all the impact of the authors' own words; photos and narrative illustrations help readers to absorb the full flavor of the original novels. Fact-filled boxes examine the books' themes, characters, and each author's life and times. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea includes a map of the journey and explores marine life and oceanography in Jules Verne's time. A specially researched map of Crusoe's exotic island gives facts on its flora and fauna.

Download Description
For more than two centuries, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe has delighted readers with its delicate portrayal of physical and emotional survival. Shipwrecked upon a deserted island, a sailor most somehow build a new life.

The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
(in full The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account how he was at last as Strangely Deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself.) Novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719. The book is a unique fictional blending of the traditions of Puritan spiritual autobiography with an insistent scrutiny of the nature of men and women as social creatures, and it reveals an extraordinary ability to invent a sustaining modern myth. The title character leaves his comfortable middle-class home in England to go to sea. Surviving shipwreck, he lives on an island for 28 years, alone for most of the time until he saves the life of a savage, whom he names Friday. The two men eventually leave the island for England. Defoe probably based part of Crusoe's tale on the real-life experiences of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who at his own request was put ashore on an uninhabited island in 1704 after a quarrel with his captain. He stayed there until 1709. The book was an immediate success in England and on the European continent, and Defoe wrote a sequel (The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe) that was also published in 1719. Many stage and film adaptations have been made of Robinson Crusoe's life, and the book has spawned many imitations, including Johann Wyss's Swiss Family Robinson.

Card catalog description
As the sole survivor of a shipwreck, an Englishman lives for nearly thirty years on a deserted island.

From the Publisher
This classic story of a shipwrecked mariner on a deserted island is perhaps the greatest adventure in all of English literature. Fleeing from pirates, Robinson Crusoe is swept ashore in a storm possessing only a knife, a box of tobacco, a pipe-and the will to survive. His is the saga of a man alone: a man who overcomes self-pity and despair to reconstruct his life; who painstakingly teaches himself how to fashion a pot, bake bread, build a canoe; and who, after twenty-four agonizing years of solitude, discovers a human footprint in the sand... Consistently popular since its first publication in 1719, Daniel Defoe's story of human endurance in an exotic, faraway land exerts a timeless appeal. The first important English novel, Robinson Crusoe has taken its rightful place among the great myths of Western civilization.

Inside Flap Copy
This classic story of a shipwrecked mariner on a deserted island is perhaps the greatest adventure in all of English literature. Fleeing from pirates, Robinson Crusoe is swept ashore in a storm possessing only a knife, a box of tobacco, a pipe-and the will to survive. His is the saga of a man alone: a man who overcomes self-pity and despair to reconstruct his life; who painstakingly teaches himself how to fashion a pot, bake bread, build a canoe; and who, after twenty-four agonizing years of solitude, discovers a human footprint in the sand... Consistently popular since its first publication in 1719, Daniel Defoe's story of human endurance in an exotic, faraway land exerts a timeless appeal. The first important English novel, Robinson Crusoe has taken its rightful place among the great myths of Western civilization.

From the Paperback edition.

About the Author
Daniel Defoe was born Daniel Foe in London in 1660. It was perhaps, ineveitable that Defoe, an outspoken man, would become a political journalist. As a Puritan he believed God had given him a mission to print the truth, that is, to proselytize on religion and politics, and in fact, he became a prolific pamphleteer satirizing the hypocrisies of both Church and State. Defoe admired William III, and his poem The True-Born Englishman (1701) won him the King's friendship. But an ill-timed satire on High Church extremists, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, published during Queen Anne's reign, resulted in his being pilloried and imprisoned for seditious libel in 1703.

At fifty-nine Defoe turned to fiction, completing The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719), partly based on the saga of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor; Moll Flanders (1722); Colonel Jack (1722); A Journal of the Plague Years (1722); and Roxana or the Fortunate Mistress (1724).

From the Paperback edition.

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