Crusoe's Island

by Andrew D. Lambert

Daniel Defoe's famous castaway has been etched into the popular imagination for three centuries. This account of the real island – Juan Fernández Island in the South Pacific – draws on the voyage journals, maps and illustrations of visiting sailors, scientists, writers and artists to reveal its colourful and often violent history, from the early encounters of the 1500s to the naval battles of the First World War, and the devastating tsunami of 2010.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Pirates

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Andrew Lambert, FRHistS, is a British naval historian, who since 2001 has been the Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies, King's College London

Reviews

[Recato · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only one that had a pleasant time in this book was Selkirk fornicating with the goats.

[MD · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating subject and horrible execution.

Lambert, so I've read, is a respected historian. He is not, however, a stimulating or engaging raconteur. I wonder if he wrote a chunk of the book...left it somewhere...suddenly remembered he was writing this book...picked it up and wrote yet another chunk...forgot about it...had a sudden flash of inspiration...jotted it down on a napkin...forgot the napkin...found the manuscript and typed while having a phone conversation with his stockbroker...

He trails off, repeats himself, throws random references in I guess for fun...and, basically, gets nowhere and does no justice to the subject.

As far as I'm concerned it's not wasted reading effort because I've got a long list of things I'm going to look up and references I'm going to research to get a better handle on the subject, but...wow...this was grueling!

[Bill Ryerson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. It is very focused on the island itself, while the world turns around it. I wanted to really like this book, because it offers a different perspective on history, geography, biology, and other topics. However, there are a couple of pieces here that prevent me from going all in on it. The first are the time jumps. I found myself having to repeatedly go back and forth in a chapter to figure out where exactly I was in time, and a refresher with who's at war with whom (that probably speaks more to European history from 1400-1900 than it does the writing). The second was how the book ended. In the second to last chapter, the book really takes a turn, becoming a bit of a treatise of British government and the teaching of history. It's unexpected and not particularly welcomed.

[Book Grocer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purchase Crusoe's Island here for just $10!

Daniel Defoe's famous castaway has been etched into the popular imagination for three centuries – but what of his island? This book identifies the real place – Juan Fernández Island in the South Pacific – and charts its colourful and often violent history.

Paul - The Book Grocer