1710s
2 books
- You get a sly, episodic education in how quickly Gil Blas adapts to masters, jobs, and his own conscience, while servants, doctors, actors, and grandees expose society’s vanity. It wanders, but its comic reversals and worldly voice reward your patience.
- Half the pleasure is watching him solve problems, baking bread from scratch, building a canoe too heavy to move, tallying goats. If you like patient, practical survival stuff you'll sink right in; if lists of provisions bore you, fair warning, Defoe loves an inventory.