Book SynopsisRobinson Crusoe is one of the most famous literary characters in history, and his story has spawned hundreds of retellings. Inspired by the life of Alexander Selkirk, a sailor who lived for several years on a Pacific island, the novel tells the story of Crusoe’s survival after shipwreck on an island, interaction with the mainland’s native inhabitants, and eventual rescue. Read variously as economic fable, religious allegory, or imperialist fantasy, Crusoe has never lost its appeal as one of the most compelling adventure stories of all time. In addition to an introduction and helpful notes, this Broadview Edition includes a wide range of appendices that situate Defoe’s 1719 novel amidst castaway narratives, economic treatises, reports of cannibalism, explorations of solitude, and Defoe’s own writings on slavery and the African trade. A final appendix presents images of Crusoe’s rescue of Friday from a dozen of the most significant illustrated editions of the novel published between 1719 and 1920. Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionDaniel Defoe: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextThe Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson CrusoeAppendix A: Daniel Defoe, Preface and Publisher’sIntroduction to Serious Reflections during the Life andSurprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1720)Appendix B: From Charles Gildon, The Life and StrangeSurprising Adventures of Mr. D—— De F—— (1719)Appendix C: Castaway Narratives
From Ibn Tufayl, The Improvement of Human Reason, Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan (1708)
Accounts of Alexander Selkirk
From Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage round the World (1712)
Richard Steele, The Englishman, no. 26 (1-3 December 1713)
From Penelope Aubin, The Strange Adventures of the Count de Vinevil and his Family (1721)
From Leendert Hasenbosch, An Authentic Relation of the Many Hardships and Sufferings of a Dutch Sailor (1728)
Appendix D: Explorations of Solitude
From Richard Baxter, “Of Conversing with God in Solitude” (1664)
From Mary, Lady Chudleigh, “Of Solitude” (1710)
From Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, “The Petition for an Absolute Retreat” (1713)
From Daniel Defoe, “Of Solitude” (1720)
Alexander Pope, “Ode on Solitude” (1717)
From Edmund Burke, “Society and Solitude” (1757)
From Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emilius and Sophia (1762)
William Cowper, “Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk” (1782)
Charlotte Smith, Sonnet XLIV, “Written in the Church-yard at Middleton in Sussex” (1789)
From Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere” (1798)
William Wordsworth, “Nutting” (1800)
William Cowper, “The Castaway” (1803)
Appendix E: Economic Contexts
From John Locke, “Of Property,” Two Treatises on Government (1698)
From Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
From Karl Marx, Capital (1867)
From Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1920-21)
Appendix F: Defoe on Slavery and the African Trade
From Reformation of Manners, A Satire (1702)
From An Essay upon the Trade to Africa (1711)
From A Review of the State of the British Nation (1711, 1712)
From The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Col. Jacque, Commonly called Col. Jack (1722)
From A Plan of the English Commerce (1728)
Appendix G: Cannibalism
From Michel de Montaigne, “Of Cannibals” (tr. 1685-86)
From Charles de Rochefort, The History of the Caribby-Islands (tr. 1666)
From William Dampier, “Of the Reports about Cannibals” (1703)
From Daniel Defoe, Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1720)
Appendix H: Illustrations of Friday’s Rescue
Anonymous (1720)
Anonymous (1722)
Clément Pierre Marillier (1787)
Charles Ansell (1790)
Thomas Stothard (1790)
George Cruikshank (1831)
J.J. Grandville (1840)
Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne) (1846)
Jules Fesquet (1877)
Otis Turner (1913)
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