a 400 year old book! Robinson Crusoe.

Robinson Crusoe- Daniel Defoe

Version studied-

Penguin Classics edited by Angus Ross- Penguin English Library.1965

First published 1719

Daniel Defoe wrote this classic at the age of sixty, so there is hope yet!

A story described as the first real English novel. Written in 1719 and read in 2019. A mere 400 years later by a budding sixty three year old writer and poet.

The Penguin version seems to stick close to the original in its language and does not leave out details as in the Abbey classic version I acquired from Kostroma library. The other point that has to made is the size of the text in the Penguin classis. It is really small!

And annoying to read without a lot of light.

Another sign of my age, no doubt, but definitely worth mentioning and noting for future reading.

The story is as every young boy remembers, a man being shipwrecked, and adventures with pirates, but rightly so as described by the editor Angus Ross, as much more than an adventure story and as often is the case, having read the book as an adult, there are a lot of very wise and deep messages in the story.

Emphasising especially at the time of reading where I myself am experiencing a certain amount of isolation. References to the bible and self-belief are among the deeper messages to be found in this wonderful and very important story.