By Daniel Defoe

Robinson Crusoe:

Robinson Crusoe is considered by many to be the first novel in the English language. The full title of the book, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pirates. Written by Himself gives a fair enough summary of its contents!

The book was published in 1719, to immediate and universal acclaim. It has spawned over 700 adaptations – including film, children’s stories and even opera, and has been translated into hundreds of languages. The term “Robinsonade" has even been coined to describe the various spin-offs of Robinson Crusoe. It is astonishing how much of the book has become part of the language, the very term “Robinson Crusoe” has become synonymous with the concept of a castaway. Likewise, “Man Friday”, Crusoe’s servant on the island, has become a name commonly used to describe an indispensable assistant who will turn his, or her, hand to anything.

The idea of being marooned is one that grabs all of us, from the thought of the effects of isolation on the human mind to what records we’d take. Although there were many true tales of castaways in Defoe’s time, (his inspiration for Crusoe was probably a Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk who was rescued in 1709 after four years on the uninhabited island of “Chile" on the Chilean coast) the attraction of Defoe’s work is that it departs from the dryly factual and explores instead the thoughts, feelings and occupations of the castaway and hence the story achieves its everyman status.

The ‘theme’ behind Crusoe’s adventures is open to a wide range of interpretations. James Joyce saw him as the symbol of British colonialism whereas others have seen him as a pilgrim, progressing through adversity and experience towards a closer relationship with God. Whatever our vision of Crusoe, his is a fascinating and compelling tale.