Robinson Crusoe

Rating:
Summary: Exciting Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
Review: Written like a narrative biography, this popular Defoe tale has been abridged to appeal to younger reader. It is set in the mid-1600s in England, as young Robinson considers his future. His father warns him about the perils of sailing. Robinson, undeterred, finds his way to a ship leaving from London.

Various adventures ensue, including being captured as a slave by a wealthy Turk. When he breaks for his escape, he manages to board a ship with a kind captain who assists him.

The real adventure begins soon thereafter, eight years after he first left home. He is shipwrecked:

"Nothing can describe the panic I felt when I hit the water... I looked up and saw an island before me." That island becomes his home for many years. His only book is his Bible which he reads daily. He makes what he needs from items he finds of the island, and later, meets Friday, whom he saves from death.

The illustration by N. C. Wyeth are beautiful, and have been seen in many earlier editions and versions of "Robinson Crusoe."

Few books hold the charm and swagger that "Robinson Crusoe" does, and lesser still tell it so well. The abridgment retains the excitement, and hopefully, as your child or student grows older, they will want to read the original version.

I fully recommend "Robinson Crusoe," by Daniel Defoe.

Anthony Trendl