Customer Reviews

Robinson Crusoe (Penguin Readers, Level 2)

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This review is based on a mid-century reprint of Heritage's edition of Robinson Crusoe.

Defoe's book was a hit when first published and this Heritage edition was a hit as well, reprinted several times over the couse of the 20th century.

This is a fun Heritage with a number of novel flourishes. Housed in a flat, blue slipcase, the book is bound in nubby cream cloth -- about as close to "rustic" as the Heritage Press can be. Blue emblem of Crusoe on the beach; silver details on the spine. Front and back pastedowns are an extravagant color decorative map of the island.

The original LEC E.A. Wilson drawings were re-worked by Wilson from the original plates so that Heritage could publish them in color for this edition. Over 35 four-color illustrations, and a fun four-color mock-heroic title page.

The complete, original Defoe text with modernized spelling and punctuation.

Book design by R.W. Ellis. Introduction by J.C. Hadden. 299 pp with a sewn binding.

the edition that i have read is a printing by grosset & dunlap inc, in 1963. apparently,there are many different
versions of this story over the years by different publishers.
prior to 2011,i never read this classic novel by daniel dafoe so,i thought it would be a treat. the first four
chapters were about robinson's life before being shipwrecked. i found these chapters to be tedious. the best
part of the story is after robinson is stranded on an island(alone or so he thought-more on this later).
robinson had to use his brain- think outside the box to survive. he learned to plan ahead and be ingenious.
to start with,robinson was able to go back to the wrecked ship itself and remove items that would be of use to
him. from there,he built himself a shelter,storage area,and foraged for food(he killed goats and ate them).
unkown to robinson-for quite some time-there were cannibals who liked to visit the island and bring captive
people to feast on-right there on the beach-talk about bringing your own lunch!?!?
it was not untill after spending 24 lonely years on this island that robinson rescued a captive man(whom he named "friday") from the cannibals and friday became a servant to robinson. i do not want to reveal all but,in the end and after 28 years,robinson finally returned home to england.
i found this story interesting,especially the part about survival in the wilderness. on occasion robinson would
reflect on his situation and would lament and talk to God but,there is nothing very profound in the story.
i think it is a good story for teens or adults and i must mention it was written long ago,in the 18th century
so,it is written "as is"-as people were at that time.