On Robinson Crusoe's first seafaring voyage, his ship sinks in a violent storm. On his second voyage he is enslaved by pirates. When Crusoe braves the ocean after several years in Brazil, Providence leaves him as the sole survivor of a shipwreck on a deserted island. Confronted by hunger and the elements, Crusoe builds a home, grows crops, tames wild animals, and survives cannibals and mutineers by his wits and the qualities of his cultural upbringing. But while Crusoe has conquered his island, he is affected most by his isolation from civilization. Robinson Crusoe is widely regarded as the first English novel. No book in the history of Western literature had spawned more editions, spin-offs, and translations. Adaptations include The Swiss Family Robinson, the Hollywood film Cast Away, and NBC's TV series Crusoe. The story was likely influenced by the real-life Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway in 1704 who spent four years and four months on the Pacific island Juan Fernández which was later changed to Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966.
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From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-As with any abridged version, the story is spare, but what it loses in prose, it gains in readability. The easy-to-understand text keeps some of the flavor of the original, but in condensing 27 chapters and more than 300 pages of narrative to 50-plus pages with half as many chapters, much of the long-winded description has been eliminated. However, the modernized spelling, added dialogue, shortened expository passages, large type, and emphasis on fast-paced storytelling will make this classic accessible to a younger audience. The story ends abruptly with Robinson Crusoe's return to England. None of the adventures after his arrival in his homeland-the discovery of riches at his Brazilian plantation, Friday's encounter with the bear, or the attack by ravenous wolves on the trek to France-are included. Nevertheless, the bare-bones telling, combined with more than a dozen of Wyeth's lavish oil paintings (which originally graced the 1920 edition), makes this a worthwhile purchase.
Laurie Edwards, West Shore School District, Camp Hill, PA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Laurie Edwards, West Shore School District, Camp Hill, PA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
One of the first novels ever written, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719), the classic adventure story of a man marooned on an island for nearly 30 years, is part of our culture. From Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960) to the recent movie Castaway, the elemental situation of the person suddenly alone, who must make a life in a dangerous environment, continues to enthrall all ages. Yet few adults, never mind young people, can wade through Defoe's lengthy tome with its convoluted eighteenth-century prose. So here's a shortened storybook version--retold by Timothy Meis in accessible style, yet true to the spirit of the original and the time when it was first published--in a large picture-book format with clear type, high-quality paper, and more than a dozen unforgettable narrative paintings by Wyeth, first published in 1920 and newly reproduced here in glowing color.
The story begins with the universal quest: the young man in Britain, torn between his safe home and his hunger for adventure, breaks away from his loving father and sails away into the unknown. After a series of harrowing escapes, he's shipwrecked on a desert island. His lively first-person account shows how his intelligence and education help him survive for many years, and how he uses technology, including guns and tools salvaged from the ship. He sets up home, reads the Bible, finds a parrot as a pet, and even devises a calendar to keep track of time. Then one day he finds a human footprint: "Was it someone who could save me and take me back to civilization? Or was it a savage who landed here?" When some "savages" arrive in several canoes, he uses his guns to get rid of them, and he rescues one of their captives, a handsome fellow with very dark skin. Delighted to have a companion at last, Crusoe names the newcomer Friday (since Crusoe found him on Friday). Crusoe teaches "my man Friday" to speak English, fire a gun, carve a canoe, and clothe his nakedness, and they live happily together. Later they rescue a white man and Friday's father from a group of "savages," and, eventually, they all return to their homes.
Defoe is said to have based his novel on the true adventures of Alexander Selkirk (who spent four or five years on an island in the South Pacific) and on accounts of other castaways of the time. The survival adventure is still enthralling. But what about the racism? This is clearly the classic colonialist story, but whose history is it? And how will young people read it today? Is it just boring, politically correct nitpicking to object to the use of the word "savages" throughout the book and even on the book flap? Yes, there are some bad guys among the whites, but even they are called "men"; the dark-skinned people are always known as "savages." How do we talk about this story today? The guns and tools make Crusoe boss, but wouldn't Friday have been able to teach the newcomer some survival skills? Does it never occur to Crusoe to learn Friday's own name and language? Who discovered whom? Wyeth's clear, action-packed illustrations are magnificent. But there's one shockingly jarring scene of Friday groveling in gratitude at Crusoe's feet. When the whites say thanks, they embrace each other.
So, no, the objections are not just P. C. sermonizing. The racism is highly offensive. But the fact that the story is so widely known and has such elemental appeal makes this an excellent book for discussion, especially in classes studying the history of exploration and discovery. Louise Erdrich addressed a similar problem [BKL Ap 1 99] when she commented that although she had loved the Little House books as a child, in rereading them as an adult, she was shocked to recognize that "not only was there no consciousness about the displaced people whose land the newcomers were taking, but also that there was a fair amount of racism." Still, she disagrees with censorship of any kind: "The best way is for good teachers and parents to install racism radar detectors so that kids can make their own judgments, because they're going to have to."
Robinson Crusoe is part of the fine Scribner Storybook Classic series that includes The Last of the Mohicans and Robin Hood, all of which bring readers to Wyeth's paintings. Treasure Island will be out later this year. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Paperback
Robinson Crusoe begins as a moral tale: Young Crusoe defies his father's advice, gets in lots of trouble, gets enslaved, makes the best of it, gets shipwrecked, makes the best of it, learns and grows from his experiences, wrestles with his soul, and fights for his very survival.
Robinson Crusoe has a strange economic undertone. It has that strange 18th-century belief that God, morality and economics are all somehow one. To conquer a North American people, reduce them to slavery, make them mine gold and become rich and successful in the Old World somehow was moral, economically sound, and pleased God all at once. This is the kind of thinking that Defoe seems to have running in the back of his mind in this book. From this Defoe makes interesting realizations, for instance, the value (or non-value) of his money when he is alone on the island, and then the return of its value when he gets back to the mainland.
This book is an enjoyable read, is widely regarded as the first English novel, and is frequently listed on top 100 lists of all time books.
Robinson Crusoe has a strange economic undertone. It has that strange 18th-century belief that God, morality and economics are all somehow one. To conquer a North American people, reduce them to slavery, make them mine gold and become rich and successful in the Old World somehow was moral, economically sound, and pleased God all at once. This is the kind of thinking that Defoe seems to have running in the back of his mind in this book. From this Defoe makes interesting realizations, for instance, the value (or non-value) of his money when he is alone on the island, and then the return of its value when he gets back to the mainland.
This book is an enjoyable read, is widely regarded as the first English novel, and is frequently listed on top 100 lists of all time books.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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5.0 out of 5 stars
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Moral Adventure Tale
July 8 2010
By Ron Paul
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
A wonderful tale of morality and freedom. There is nothing else like this in the English language. Robinson Crusoe finds the freedom to make choices that take him on a soul searching journey around the world. He is able to benefit completely from the toils of his labor whether he is in England, Brazil or stranded on his island. Crusoe also struggles with his morals, and creates a set of principles that are the envy of every man, and he sticks by them.
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