Robinson Crusoe (Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth)

Okay, Robinson Crusoe the story is straight up great, and worth reading. But (and this was a surprise to me, there were two sequels written to the original book).This kindle (ASIN #B0084BJ6WK) contains both titles, and a Preface, even tho that is not indicated by the title.The original book is usually just called "Robinson Crusoe", but sometimes is called "The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (which is a shortening of the insanely much longer original title "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" - see wiki, there's a picture of the first edition.The first sequel is usually called "The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe", but was originally called "The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe".Anyway, this edition (ASIN #B0084BJ6WK) contains both books, and an Introduction, or Preface, by someone who signs it "G.D.", but I don't know who that person is. It also has subtle edits and changes. I tracked this kindle along with another kindle, and an audiobook, and a hardcover copy. They were all slightly different. But one big noticeable difference was in accounting of the number in an army at one point in the first book - turns out Defoe himself screwed that up and got it all muddled, and tried (but failed) to fix it via edits for later editions. He just muddled it more by his edits, which is pretty funny. Some of the number are counted both as dead, and as alive, and some just disappear, as tho they'd never been there at all, except they were, because he didn't edit them out ;-).A more interesting difference was the elimination of an internal debate he had with himself near the very end of the book, regarding whether or not he could live fully embracing the Roman Catholic religion, with all that means with regard to the contemporary-to-the-story Spanish Inquisition.All of the editions I read/tracked had different chapter breaks, as well as word choices and substitutions. Makes me wonder what was original! I certainly don't know. I suspect there are as many variations as there are editions.In any event, all that doesn't detract from the story. It's highly readable, and very enjoyable. The first book more so than the sequel. I recommend everyone should read it, it's a fun read!

I read reviews of an earlier edition claiming that it had left off in the middle of a sentence. Surely, I thought, such nonsense will have been corrected in this follow-up edition. Nope: It too omits several of the novel's final paragraphs. One wonders what these folks are doing publishing (and selling) books, let alone classics.

If you haven't heard the title of this book and are not aware of the topic, then you must live in North Korea. How can the first novel not be given 5 stars? Daniel Defoe presents the famous story of the lone man struggling to survive on an uninhabited island. Although written centuries ago, it still holds your attention and presents fundamental truths such as the importance and requirement of using one's mind in order to survive. All of the millions of mindless sheep today who regurgitate slogans only survive because of others who have used their minds to produce goods, like Robinson Crusoe. There are several interesting underlying themes and exciting confrontations that occur throughout.

I am writing a review of the audiobook version. I liked the narrator's presentation of the book. He has a good speaking voice and I've enjoyed other books he has narrated.As for the book, one cannot expect the writing style or narrative to match that of current day since it was written 300 years ago, I did enjoy the usage of certain words in the book, which are now considered archaic. That said, I found the story to be tedious, repetitive and overtly religious. While it probably helped sales of the book in England, I did not like the overly superior manner in which the English way of life is portrayed in the book. All other peoples and they way they live are deemed are inferior.Daniel Dafoe must have consumed the entire world's supply of commas for 10 or 20 years in writing this book. Nearly every sentence seems to contain a comma and many have multiple commas.

This version (hardback, Sterling) is actually pretty nice itself! Good binding, pretty art on dust jacket, and artwork throughout.AS FOR THE ACTUAL STORY, it's awful! What was Daniel Defoe thinking? First novel? Yeah, we can tell, buddy! You just have a 26-year-old white dude stranded on an island for ... a long time, and it's just 150-ish straight pages of us reading how he tames goats and figures out how to grow grapes. Whoop-de-friggin-do! Don't bother. Read "The Female American" instead. It's got its own problems, but it's a heck of a step up from this. My coworker Taylor recommended this to me, and now I know why everyone hates her.

It is presumptuous of me to offer a review. The Canterbury Tales, the first English book, and Robinson Crusoe, the first English novel, may be to two most seminal books ever written in the English language.Let me just say that Robinson Crusoe is simply a great read. Do you need a story for the beach? This is it. Do you need a subject for you doctoral dissertation? This could also be it.Everyone should find something of interest in this adventure story. I strongly recommend it.

I used to work at Macmillan when Scribner was under the Macmillan umbrella and I knew when I bought this edition that it was the highest quality you can buy. The N.C. Wyeth illustrations are wonderful and they're on the very best high quality paper. All the Scribner Classics are well made. If you like classics, you'll love these editions. They are very well bound on very good paper and, as I just said, the illustrations are on the very best paper. For the price, you're getting a great deal. The only drawback: because it's such a high quality edition, you'll want to take very, very good care of it. Read it away from anything that might spill on it. Try to keep it away from any humidity. I know I'm sounding like a crazy book person and, okay, I probably am, but when you buy it, you'll see what I mean.

I hated this book with a passion. This was my very first set book in English Lit. in secondary school in the '50s ( aged 11 ) and the very first homework was to read the first 100 pages for a test the following week. Having been brought up on a diet of Enid Blyton, Malcolm Saville, Arthur Ransome, Frank Richards, and some RLS etc, I struggled with the archaic style, long sentences, and so on, and failed miserably. I vowed never to touch the book again.Fast forward sixty years and I thought I should give it another try. I now find it very readable, interesting and even enjoyable. So never say never! The version I bought is from the hard cover, Collectors' Library edition. These books are a handy pocket size and smart looking with gilt edged pages, a page saver ribbon, and a durable spine. On the down side, the print is necessarily small and some may have difficulty with this size font. Maybe a touch expensive at £8.99, when you can get a paperback copy for £2.00 or less, but okay if you intend to keep it.

I can recommend this edition for the clear print and excellent intro and biographical and textual notes and exhaustive bibliography that made me curious to read the rest of Defoe's work. The only problem is that these various sections are strewn around the book (both for'ard and aft :-) so as to make a close reading dependent on a system of several simultaneous bookmarks. I also missed the presence of a modern map, and the small repro of Crusoe's own map of his voyages definitely deserves a further commentary in itself and a clearer modern version of it. (The reader who is not clued up will find it difficult to work out where Crusoe was allegedly stranded, and yet that map with more detailed map inserts would be so easy to supply these days.) But these are the niggles of a rather untypical reader.

It's easy to forget quite how boring the unabridged Robinson Crusoe really is.Imagine audio documenting all the happenstance of your average day - swept carpet, washed dishes, went to toilet, etc, etc.And repeating that for chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter ....Occasionally adding in a reading from a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet that had come through the door.That would be equivalent to much of what this offering comprises.And Tom Casaletto may well be an estimable voice actor in his own milieu, but as a purveyor of an "English" accent and style of reading he is toe-curling.

I first read this many decades ago after watching the excellent BBC serial on children's television that I think was a French production. Coming back to it all these years later I'm struck, once again, by how, although appearing slightly `overblown' for some modern tastes, engaging the writing is and how the story of this young man's gruelling coming of age still resonates down the centuries. Thus, one understands why the book quickly attained classic status and remained a favourite for more than 300 years.According to Colin Wilson (in A Criminal History of Mankind) Defoe based the story on the adventures of a Scottish pirate named Alexander Selkirk who, following a quarrel with his pirate captain, asked to be marooned on what was then, one of the uninhabited islands of the Juan Fernandez group about 600 km off the coast of Chile in the South Pacific. After five years Selkirk return to England and became an overnight `celebrity' and Defoe (who began life, in 1660, as Daniel Foe) went to see him in Bristol in 1713 and probably paid for his written reminiscences. The interesting point to note is that Defoe was an agent provocateur and spy, a kind of forerunner to those more recently employed by MI5, and built up a network of spies as well as spending time `inside' and in the pillory!Why it's interesting, at least to this reader, is that this seems to indicate a certain type of person; i.e. not particularly pious, unlike his fictional creation Robinson Crusoe, who, during his long solitary sojourn on his fictional island, develops, possibly, quite understandably under the circumstances, a distinct religious sensibility and frequently and at length thanks God for providing for him so bounteously. Crusoe reflects on this many times during the book and this is just one example of a degree of repetition that a good editor would surely have remedied.Nevertheless, this book is a classic for a good reason and provides hours of enjoyment for the patient reader in addition to a great deal of food for thought!

I know I only paid 1.99 GBP, but even so what a horrid surprise....This is not Robinson Crusoe, written in English by Daniel Defoe. It looks to me like a foreign version that has been translated back into English via Google Translate or similar. The opening, instead of "I was born in the year 1632, in the City of York, of a good family, tho' not of that Country..." reads "I changed into born in the 12 months 1632, within the city of York, of a superb family, no matter the reality that no longer of that america...." Don't be put off if English is not your first language.