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A review by robinwhg
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
3.0
Even if you try, to take into account the time in which the work was written, it is still unsettling to follow a protagonist who writes about non-Europeans with such self-evident superiority, as if they were wild animals. On the other hand, he talks about the cruelty of the Spaniards towards South Americans and how he had no right to condemn tribes for their cannibalism.
That being said, the tales of his adventures are still worth reading today and certainly would have been fascinating to 18th-century Europeans. For my taste, he is a bit too lucky in his travels and everything works out too smoothly, although the book is aware of that. The accounts of the time after the main plot don't add to the overall work and Defoe could have kept it a bit shorter.
Even though the book has aged poorly, it is a classic that you should read.
That being said, the tales of his adventures are still worth reading today and certainly would have been fascinating to 18th-century Europeans. For my taste, he is a bit too lucky in his travels and everything works out too smoothly, although the book is aware of that. The accounts of the time after the main plot don't add to the overall work and Defoe could have kept it a bit shorter.
Even though the book has aged poorly, it is a classic that you should read.