Did not finish.
As far as I understand, this is considered one of the first modern novels in the English language… All I can say is that it does not seem to have aged well. The writing is awful, almost all “tell” rather than “show.” The characters are wooden. The pacing is awful. The attitudes towards religion, slavery, racism, etc are all, let’s just say, dated (understandable given the era the book was written, but doesn’t make it any more enjoyable to read).
Even though I’m deeply fascinated by the general themes of this book—the age of exploration, survival on deserted islands, the age of sail, pirates, etc—I found myself incredibly bored, and gave up less than 20% of the way through.
Rating: 2 stars
Yevgeniy Brikman
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