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{{short description|1719 novel by Daniel Defoe}}
{{Other uses}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021|cs1-dates=y}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2011}}
{{Infobox book
| name              = Robinson Crusoe
| title_orig        = The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited 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 Pyrates. Written by Himself.
| translator        = 
| image             = Robinson Crusoe 1719 1st edition.jpg
| caption           = Title page from the first edition
| author            = [[Daniel Defoe]]
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]
| language          = English
| series            = 
| genre             = Adventure, historical fiction
| publisher         = [[William Taylor (bookseller)|William Taylor]]
| release_date      = {{start date and age|1719|4|25|df=y|p=y}}
| english_release_date = 
| preceded_by       = 
| followed_by       = [[The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe]]
| wikisource        = Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)
| set_in            = England, the [[Caribbean]] and the [[Pyrenees]], 1651–1687
| congress          = PR3403 .A1
| dewey             = 823.51
}}
'''''Robinson Crusoe'''''{{efn|Full title: '''''The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited 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 Pyrates. Written by Himself.'''''<ref name=Defoe-1719-1998ed>{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Defoe |orig-year=1719 |title=Robinson Crusoe |date=10 June 1998 |publisher=Courier Corporation |hdl=20.500.12024/K061280.000 |isbn=9780486404271 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12024/K061280.000}}</ref>}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɹ|uː|s|oʊ}} {{respell|KROO|soh}}) is an English adventure novel by [[Daniel Defoe]], first published on 25&nbsp;April 1719. It is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre, and has been described as the first [[novel]], or at least the first [[English novel]] – although these labels are disputed.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Oxford Companion to English Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |editor-last=Drabble |editor-first=Margaret |place=Oxford, UK |page=265 |article=Defoe}}</ref><ref name="h011">{{cite book | last=Peraldo | first=Emmanuelle | title=300 Years of Robinsonades | publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing | date=2020-03-10 | isbn=978-1-5275-4840-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZUfhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 | access-date=2025-08-06 | page=4|quote= And it is precisely the middle class that [[Ian Watt]] (1957) considers as a defining characteristic of the emerging genre of the novel: Watt sees the novel as a genre that developed in the social context of the rise of the Middle Class in England in the first half of the eighteenth century and Defoe has been considered by many critics, including Watt, as one of the fathers of the novel. In The Rise of the Novel; Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding (whose subtitle clearly mentions Defoe as an actor in the rise of the genre), lan Watt wrote that "Robinson Crusoe is certainly the first novel in the sense that it is the first fictional narrative in which an ordinary person's daily activities are the center of continuous literary attention." (Watt 1957, 74) There have been disagreements on that issue, and some critics have voiced their hesitations on Robinson Crusoe as the first novel, in Reconsidering the Rise of the Novel (2000) for example. As for Defoe himself, he would never have called his writings "novels" and the "novel" is a label that was given by critics later in the eighteenth century.}}</ref>

Written with a combination of [[Epistolary novel|epistolary]], [[Confessional writing|confessional]], and [[Didacticism|didactic]] forms, the book follows the title character (born Robinson Kreutznaer) after he is [[castaway|cast away]] and spends 28 years on a remote tropical [[desert island]] near the coasts of [[Venezuela]] and [[Trinidad]], encountering [[Human cannibalism|cannibals]], captives, and mutineers before being rescued. The story has been thought to be based on the life of [[Alexander Selkirk]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Smithsonian |title=The Real Robinson Crusoe |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-robinson-crusoe-74877644/ |access-date=2023-11-05 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on a Pacific island called "Más a Tierra" (now part of [[Chile]]) which was renamed [[Robinson Crusoe Island]] in 1966.<ref name=Severin2002>{{cite book |last=Severin |first=Tim |year=2002 |title=In Search of Robinson Crusoe |place=New York, NY |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0-465-07698-X}}</ref>{{rp|pages=23–24}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rescue of Real-Life Robinson Crusoe |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/rescue-real-life-robinson-crusoe/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=education.nationalgeographic.org |language=en}}</ref> [[Pedro Serrano (sailor)|Pedro Serrano]] is another real-life castaway whose story might have inspired the novel.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-28 |title=Pedro Serrano, el náufrago español que sobrevivió 8 años en una isla caribeña: inspiró a Robinson Crusoe |url=https://www.elespanol.com/cultura/historia/20210628/pedro-serrano-naufrago-sobrevivio-caribena-robinson-crusoe/591691199_0.html |access-date=2023-11-05 |website=El Español |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Brule |first=Álvaro Van den |date=2019-09-07 |title=El Robinson Crusoe español: la increíble peripecia del náufrago que inspiró a Defoe |url=https://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2019-09-07/pedro-serrano-naufrago-sumergido-bajo-estrellas_2213507/ |access-date=2023-11-05 |website=elconfidencial.com |language=es}}</ref>

The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and that the book was a non-fiction [[Travelogue (literature)|travelogue]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Fiction as authentic as fact |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |date=11 January 2013 |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323936804578227971298012486 |url-status=live |access-date=8 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802201739/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323936804578227971298012486 |archive-date=2 August 2017|last1=Heitman |first1=Danny }}</ref> Despite its simple narrative style, ''Robinson Crusoe'' was well received in the literary world.

Before the end of 1719, the book had already run through four editions, and it has gone on to become one of the most widely published books in history, spawning so many imitations, not only in literature but also in film, television, and radio, that its name is used to define a genre, the [[Robinsonade]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=UF Digital Collections |url=https://ufdc.ufl.edu/es/collections/DEFOE |access-date=2023-11-05 |website=ufdc.ufl.edu}}</ref>

==Plot summary==
[[File:Robinson.Crusoe.island.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Pictorial map of Crusoe's island, the "Island of Despair", showing incidents from the book]]
Robinson Crusoe (the family name coming from the German name "Kreutznaer") sets sail from [[Kingston upon Hull]], [[England]], on a sea voyage in August&nbsp;1651, against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to pursue a career in law. After a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm, his desire for the sea remains so strong that he sets out to sea again. This journey, too, ends in disaster, as the ship is taken over by [[Salé]] [[Barbary pirates|pirates]] (the [[Salé Rovers]]) and Crusoe is enslaved by a [[Moors|Moor]]. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa rescues him. The ship is ''en route'' to [[Colonial Brazil|Brazil]]. Crusoe sells Xury to the captain. With the captain's help, Crusoe procures a [[plantation]] in Brazil.

Years later, Crusoe joins an expedition to [[Atlantic slave trade|purchase slaves from Africa]] but the ship gets blown off course in a storm about forty miles out to sea and runs aground on the sandbar of an island off the [[Venezuela]]n coast (which he calls the ''Island of Despair'') near the mouth of the [[Orinoco|Orinoco River]] on 30&nbsp;September 1659.<ref name=Defoe-1719-1998ed/>{{rp|at=Chapter&nbsp;23}} The crew lowers the [[jolly boat]], but it gets swamped by a tidal wave, drowning the crew, but leaving Crusoe the sole human survivor.  He observes the latitude as 9&nbsp;degrees and 22&nbsp;minutes north. He sees penguins and [[Pinniped|seals]] on this island. Aside from Crusoe, the captain's dog and two cats survive the shipwreck. Overcoming his despair, he fetches arms, tools and other supplies from the ship before the next storm breaks it apart. He builds a fenced-in habitat near a cave which he excavates. By making marks in a wooden cross, he creates a calendar post to keep track of his time on the island. Over the years, by using tools salvaged from the ship, and some which he makes himself, he hunts animals, grows barley and rice, dries grapes to make raisins, learns to make pottery and traps and raises goats. He also adopts a small parrot. He reads the [[Bible]] and becomes religious, thanking God for his fate in which nothing is missing but human society.  He also builds two boats: a large dugout canoe that he intends to use to sail to the mainland, but ends up being too large and too far from water to launch, and a smaller boat that he uses to explore the coast of the island.

More years pass and Crusoe discovers [[Human cannibalism|cannibals]], who occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners. Alarmed at this, he conserves the ammunition he'd used for hunting (running low at that point) for defence and fortifies his home in case the cannibals discover his presence on the island.  He plans to kill them for committing an abomination, but later realizes he has no right to do so, as the cannibals do not knowingly commit a crime. One day, Crusoe finds that a Spanish [[galleon]] has run aground on the island during a storm, but his hopes for rescue are dashed when he discovers that the crew abandoned the ship.  Nevertheless, the abandoned galleon's untouched supplies of food and ammunition, along with the ship's dog, add to Crusoe's reserves.  Every night, he dreams of obtaining one or two servants by freeing some prisoners; during the cannibals' next visit to the island, when a prisoner escapes, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion "[[Friday (Robinson Crusoe)|Friday]]" after the day of the week he appeared. Crusoe teaches Friday the English language and [[Conversion to Christianity|converts]] him to Christianity.

Crusoe soon learns from Friday that the crew from the shipwrecked galleon he'd found had escaped to the mainland and are now living with Friday's tribe.  Seeing renewed hope for rescue and with Friday's help, Crusoe builds another, but smaller, dugout canoe for a renewed plan to sail to the mainland. After more cannibals arrive to partake in a feast, Crusoe and Friday kill most of them and save two prisoners. One is Friday's father and the other is a Spaniard, who informs Crusoe about the other Spaniards shipwrecked on the mainland. A plan is devised wherein the Spaniard would return to the mainland with Friday's father and bring back the others, build a ship, and sail to a Spanish port.

Before the Spaniards return, an English ship appears; the sailors have staged a mutiny against their captain and intend to leave him and those still loyal to him on the island. Crusoe and the ship's captain strike a deal in which Crusoe helps the captain and the loyal sailors retake the ship. With their ringleader executed by the captain, the mutineers take up Crusoe's offer to remain on the island rather than being returned to England as prisoners to be hanged. Before embarking for England, Crusoe shows the mutineers how he survived on the island and states that the Spaniards will be coming.

[[File:Robinson Crusoe's route across the Pyrenees mountains.jpg|thumb|right|400px|The route taken by Robinson Crusoe over the Pyrenees mountains in chapters 19 and 20 of Defoe's novel, as envisaged by {{ill|Joseph Ribas|fr|Joseph Ribas}}]]

Crusoe leaves the island on 19&nbsp;December 1686 and arrives in England on 11&nbsp;June 1687. He learns that his family believed him dead; as a result, he was left nothing in his father's will. Crusoe departs for Lisbon to reclaim the profits of his estate in Brazil, which has granted him much wealth. In conclusion, he transports his wealth overland to England from Portugal to avoid travelling by sea. Friday accompanies him and, ''en route'', they endure one last adventure together as they fight off famished wolves while crossing the [[Pyrenees]].<ref>Ribas, Joseph [1995]. Robinson Crusoé dans les Pyrénées. Éditions Loubatières. ISBN 2-86266-235-6.</ref>

==Characters==
* '''Robinson Crusoe:''' The narrator of the novel, who gets shipwrecked.
* '''[[Friday (Robinson Crusoe)|Friday]]:''' A native Caribbean whom Crusoe saves from cannibalism, and subsequently names "Friday". He becomes a servant and friend to Crusoe.
* '''Xury:''' Servant to Crusoe after they escape slavery from the Captain of the Rover together. He is later given to the Portuguese Sea Captain as an indentured servant.
* '''The Widow:''' Friend to Crusoe who looks over his assets while he is away.
* '''Portuguese Sea Captain:''' Rescues Crusoe after he escapes from slavery. Later helps him with his money and plantation.
* '''The Spaniard:''' A man rescued by Crusoe and Friday from the cannibals who later helps them escape the island. 
* '''Friday's father:''' rescued by Crusoe and Friday at the same time as the Spaniard.
* '''Robinson Crusoe's father:''' A merchant named Kreutznaer.
* '''Captain of the Rover:''' Moorish pirate of Sallee who captures and enslaves Crusoe.
* '''Traitorous crew members:''' members of a mutinied ship who appear towards the end of novel
* '''The Savages:''' Cannibals that come to Crusoe's Island and who represent a threat to Crusoe's religious and moral convictions as well as his own safety.

== Sources and real-life castaways ==
{{See also|Castaway#Real occurrences}}
[[File:Alexander Selkirk Statue.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Statue of Robinson Crusoe at [[Alexander Selkirk]]'s birthplace of [[Lower Largo]] in Scotland, by [[Thomas Stuart Burnett]]]]
[[File:Alexander Selkirk Title Page.jpg|right|thumb|Book on Alexander Selkirk]]
There were many stories of real-life castaways in Defoe's time. Most famously, Defoe's suspected inspiration for ''Robinson Crusoe'' is thought to be Scottish sailor [[Alexander Selkirk]], who spent four years on the uninhabited island of [[Robinson Crusoe Island|Más a Tierra]] (renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966)<ref name=Severin2002/>{{rp|pages=23–24}} in the [[Juan Fernández Islands]] off the Chilean coast. Selkirk was rescued in 1709 by [[Woodes Rogers]] during a British expedition that led to the publication of Selkirk's adventures in both ''[[A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World]]'' and ''A Cruising Voyage Around the World'' in 1712. According to [[Tim Severin]], "Daniel Defoe, a secretive man, neither confirmed nor denied that Selkirk was the model for the hero of his book. Apparently written in six months or less, ''Robinson Crusoe'' was a publishing phenomenon."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Severin |first=Tim |year=2002 |title=Marooned: The Metamorphosis of Alexander Selkirk |jstor=41213335 |journal=The American Scholar |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=73–82}}</ref>

According to [[Andrew Lambert]], author of ''Crusoe's Island'', it is a "false premise" to suppose that Defoe's novel was inspired by the experiences of a single person such as Selkirk, because the story is "a complex compound of all the other buccaneer survival stories."<ref name=Little2016>{{cite magazine |last=Little |first=Becky |date=28 September 2016 |title=Debunking the myth of the 'real' Robinson Crusoe |magazine=National Geographic |url=https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/robinson-crusoe-alexander-selkirk-history/ |access-date=7 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171208122400/https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/robinson-crusoe-alexander-selkirk-history/ |archive-date=8 December 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref> However, ''Robinson Crusoe'' is far from a copy of Rogers' account: Becky Little argues three events that distinguish the two stories:
# Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked while Selkirk decided to leave his ship, thus marooning himself;
# The island that Crusoe was shipwrecked on had already been inhabited, unlike the solitary nature of Selkirk's adventures.
# The last and most crucial difference between the two stories is that Selkirk was a privateer, looting and raiding coastal cities during the War of Spanish Succession.
"The economic and dynamic thrust of the book is completely alien to what the buccaneers are doing," Lambert says. "The buccaneers just want to capture some loot and come home and drink it all, and Crusoe isn't doing that at all. He's an economic imperialist: He's creating a world of trade and profit."<ref name=Little2016/>

Other possible sources for the narrative include [[Ibn Tufail]]'s ''[[Hayy ibn Yaqdhan]]'', and Spanish sixteenth-century sailor [[Pedro Serrano (sailor)|Pedro Serrano]]. Ibn&nbsp;Tufail's ''Hayy ibn&nbsp;Yaqdhan'' is a twelfth-century philosophical novel also set on a [[desert island]], and translated from Arabic into Latin and English a number of times in the half-century preceding Defoe's novel.<ref>{{cite book |first=Nawal Muhammad |last=Hassan |year=1980 |title=Hayy bin&nbsp;Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: A study of an early Arabic impact on English literature |publisher=Al-Rashid House}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Cyril |last=Glasse |year=2001 |title=[[Encyclopedia of Islam|New Encyclopedia of Islam]] |page=202 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=0-7591-0190-6}}</ref><ref name=Amber>{{cite journal |first=Amber |last=Haque |year=2004 |title=Psychology from Islamic perspective: Contributions of early Muslim scholars and challenges to contemporary Muslim psychologists |journal=Journal of Religion and Health |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=357–377, esp.369|doi=10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z |s2cid=38740431 }}</ref><ref name=Wainwright>{{cite news |first=Martin |last=Wainwright |title=Desert island scripts |series=Review |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=22 March 2003 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/mar/22/featuresreviews.guardianreview1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724144426/http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,918454,00.html |archive-date=24 July 2008}}</ref>

[[Pedro Serrano (sailor)|Pedro Luis Serrano]] was a Spanish sailor who was marooned for seven or eight years on a small desert island after shipwrecking in the 1520s on a small island in the Caribbean off the coast of Nicaragua. He had no access to fresh water and lived off the blood and flesh of sea turtles and birds. He was quite a celebrity when he returned to Europe; before dying, he recorded the hardships suffered in documents that show the endless anguish and suffering, the product of absolute abandonment to his fate, now held in the [[General Archive of the Indies]], in [[Seville]].{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} It is quite possible that Defoe heard his story in one of his visits to Spain before becoming a writer.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-08-02 |title=La historia que inspiró a Robinson Crusoe, española. Pedro Serrano, 1526. |url=https://abcblogs.abc.es/espejo-de-navegantes/otros-temas/la-historia-que-inspiro-a-robinson-crusoe-espanola-pedro-serrano-1526.html |access-date=2023-11-05 |website=ABC Blogs |language=es}}</ref>

Yet another source for Defoe's novel may have been the [[Robert Knox (sailor)|Robert Knox]] account of his abduction by the King of [[Sri Lanka|Ceylon]] [[Rajasinha II of Kandy]] in 1659 in ''[[An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Knox |first=Robert |year=1911 |title=An Historical Account of the Island Ceylon based on the 1659 original text |place=Glasgow, UK |publisher=James MacLehose and Sons}}</ref><ref name=Filreis>see Alan Filreis</ref>

[[Tim Severin|Severin]] (2002)<ref name=Severin2002/> unravels a much wider range of potential sources of inspiration, and concludes by identifying castaway surgeon Henry Pitman as the most likely:

:An employee of the [[Duke of Monmouth]], Pitman played a part in the [[Monmouth Rebellion]]. His short book about his desperate escape from a Caribbean penal colony, followed by his shipwrecking and subsequent desert island misadventures, was published by [[John Taylor (bookseller)|John Taylor]]<!-- J. Taylor --> of [[Paternoster Row]], London, whose son [[William Taylor (bookseller)|William Taylor]] later published Defoe's novel.

Severin argues that since Pitman appears to have lived in the lodgings above the father's publishing house and that Defoe himself was a [[Mercery|mercer]] in the area at the time, Defoe may have met Pitman in person and learned of his experiences first-hand, or possibly through submission of a draft.<ref name=Severin2002/> Severin also discusses another publicized case of a marooned man named only as [[Will (Indian)|Will]], of the [[Miskito people|Miskito]] people of Central America, who may have led to the depiction of [[Man Friday|Friday]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Dampier |first=William |author-link=William Dampier |title=A New Voyage round the World |year=1697 |location=London |publisher=James Knapton |url=https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.34672}}</ref>

Secord (1963)<ref>{{cite book |last=Secord |first=Arthur Wellesley |year=1963 |orig-year=1924 |title=Studies in the Narrative Method of Defoe |pages=21–111 |place=New York, NY |publisher=Russell & Russell}}</ref> analyses the composition of ''Robinson Crusoe'' and gives a list of possible sources of the story, rejecting the common theory that the story of Selkirk is Defoe's only source.

==Reception and sequels==
[[File:SFEC HULL CRUSOE1.JPG|thumb|right|Plaque in [[Queen's Gardens, Hull]], showing him on his island]]
The book was published on 25&nbsp;April 1719. Before the end of the year, this first volume had run through four editions.

By the end of the nineteenth century, no book in the history of [[Western literature]] had more editions, spin-offs, and translations (even into languages such as [[Inuktitut]], [[Coptic language|Coptic]], and [[Maltese language|Maltese]]) than ''Robinson Crusoe'', with more than 700&nbsp;such alternative versions, including children's versions with pictures and no text.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Watt |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Watt |title=Robinson Crusoe as a myth |magazine=Essays in Criticism |date=April 1951}}<br/>{{cite book |last=Watt |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Watt |date=1994 |title=Robinson Crusoe as a Myth |edition=reprint |series=Norton Critical Edition (Second)}}</ref>

The term "[[Robinsonade]]" was coined to describe the genre of stories similar to ''Robinson Crusoe''.

Defoe went on to write a lesser-known sequel, ''[[The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe]]'' (1719). It was intended to be the last part of his stories, according to the original title page of the sequel's first edition, but a third book was published (1720), ''[[Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe|Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: With his Vision of the Angelick World]]''.

== Interpretations of the novel ==
[[File:Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday Offterdinger.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Crusoe standing over [[Friday (Robinson Crusoe)|Friday]] after he frees him from the cannibals, illustration by [[Carl Offterdinger]]]]
{{Quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=left|quote="He is the true prototype of the British colonist.&nbsp;... The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit in Crusoe: the manly independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet efficient intelligence, the sexual apathy, the calculating taciturnity."|source=Irish novelist [[James Joyce]]<ref>{{cite journal |first=James |last=Joyce |year=1964 |title=Daniel Defoe |translator-first=Joseph |translator-last=Prescott |edition=English translation of Italian manuscript |journal=Buffalo Studies |volume=1 |pages=24–25}}</ref>}}

The novel has been subject to numerous analyses and interpretations since its publication. In a sense, Crusoe attempts to replicate his society on the island. This is achieved through the use of European technology, agriculture and even a rudimentary political hierarchy. Several times in the novel Crusoe refers to himself as the "king" of the island, while the captain describes him as the "governor" to the mutineers. At the very end of the novel the island is referred to as a "colony". The idealized master-servant relationship Defoe depicts between Crusoe and Friday can also be seen in terms of [[cultural assimilation]], with Crusoe representing the "enlightened" European while Friday is the "savage" who can only be redeemed from his cultural manners through assimilation into Crusoe's culture. Nonetheless, Defoe used Friday to criticize the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/bitstream/handle/10361/2579/10363004.pdf?sequence=4|format=PDF|title=Colonial Representation in Robinson Crusoe, Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India|website=Dspace.bracu.ac.bd|access-date=27 October 2018}}</ref>

According to J.P. Hunter, Robinson is not a hero but an [[everyman]]. He begins as a wanderer, aimless on a sea he does not understand, and ends as a [[pilgrim]], crossing a final mountain to enter the [[promised land]]. The book tells the story of how Robinson becomes closer to God, not through listening to [[sermon]]s in a church but through spending time alone amongst [[nature]] with only a Bible to read.

Conversely, cultural critic and literary scholar Michael Gurnow views the novel from a [[Rousseau]]ian perspective: The central character's movement from a primitive state to a more civilized one is interpreted as Crusoe's denial of humanity's [[state of nature]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Gurnow |first=Michael |date=Summer 2010 |title='The folly of beginning a work before we count the cost': Anarcho-primitivism in Daniel Defoe's ''Robinson Crusoe'' |magazine=[[Fifth Estate (periodical)|Fifth Estate]] |issue=383 |url=http://www.fifthestate.org/archive/383-summer-2010/folly-beginning-work-count-cost/ |url-status=live |access-date=17 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317190719/http://www.fifthestate.org/archive/383-summer-2010/folly-beginning-work-count-cost/ |archive-date=17 March 2014}}</ref>

''Robinson Crusoe'' is filled with religious aspects. Defoe was a [[Puritans|Puritan]] moralist and normally worked in the guide tradition, writing books on how to be a good Puritan Christian, such as ''The New Family Instructor'' (1727) and ''Religious Courtship'' (1722). While ''Robinson Crusoe'' is far more than a guide, it shares many of the themes and theological and moral points of view.

"Crusoe" may have been taken from [[Timothy Cruso]], a classmate of Defoe's who had written guide books, including ''God the Guide of Youth'' (1695), before dying at an early age – just eight years before Defoe wrote ''Robinson Crusoe''. Cruso would have been remembered by contemporaries and the association with guide books is clear. It has even been speculated that ''God the Guide of Youth'' inspired ''Robinson Crusoe'' because of a number of passages in that work that are closely tied to the novel.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hunter |first=J. Paul |year=1966 |title=The Reluctant Pilgrim |series=Norton Critical Edition}}</ref> A leitmotif of the novel is the Christian notion of [[Divine providence|providence]], penitence, and redemption.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Greif |first=Martin J. |date=Summer 1966 |title=The Conversion of Robinson Crusoe |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=551–574 |journal=SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 |jstor=449560 |doi=10.2307/449560}}</ref> Crusoe comes to repent of the follies of his youth. Defoe also foregrounds this theme by arranging highly significant events in the novel to occur on Crusoe's birthday. The denouement culminates not only in Crusoe's deliverance from the island, but his spiritual deliverance, his acceptance of Christian doctrine, and in his intuition of his own salvation.

When confronted with the cannibals, Crusoe wrestles with the problem of [[cultural relativism]]. Despite his disgust, he feels unjustified in holding the natives morally responsible for a practice so deeply ingrained in their culture. Nevertheless, he retains his belief in an absolute standard of morality; he regards cannibalism as a "national crime" and forbids Friday from practising it.

=== Economics and civilization ===
{{Main|Robinson Crusoe economy}}
In [[classical economics|classical]], [[neoclassical economics|neoclassical]] and [[Austrian economics]], Crusoe is regularly used to illustrate the theory of production and choice in the absence of trade, money, and prices.<ref name="isbn0-393-95924-4">{{cite book |last=Varian |first=Hal R. |title=Intermediate microeconomics: A modern approach |publisher=W.W. Norton |location=New York |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-393-95924-6}}</ref> Crusoe must allocate effort between production and leisure and must choose between alternative production possibilities to meet his needs. The arrival of Friday is then used to illustrate the possibility of trade and the gains that result.

{{Quote box
 |quote = One day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand.
 |source = Defoe's ''Robinson Crusoe'', 1719
 |width  = 30%
 }}

The work has been variously read as an allegory for the development of civilization; as a manifesto of economic individualism; and as an expression of European colonial desires. Significantly, it also shows the importance of repentance and illustrates the strength of Defoe's religious convictions.  Critic M.E. Novak supports the connection between the religious and economic themes within ''Robinson Crusoe'', citing Defoe's religious ideology as the influence for his portrayal of Crusoe's economic ideals, and his support of the individual. Novak cites [[Ian Watt]]'s extensive research<ref>{{cite book |first=Ian |last=Watt |author-link=Ian Watt |title=Myths of Modern Individualism: Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe}}{{full citation needed|date=September 2020}}</ref> which explores the impact that several Romantic Era novels had against economic individualism, and the reversal of those ideals that takes place within ''Robinson Crusoe''.<ref name=Novak-1961>{{cite journal |last=Novak |first=Maximillian E. |date=Summer 1961 |title=Robinson Crusoe's "original sin" |series=Restoration and Eighteenth Century |journal=SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=19–29 |jstor=449302 |doi=10.2307/449302}}</ref>

In Tess Lewis's review, "The heroes we deserve", of Ian Watt's article, she furthers Watt's argument with a development on Defoe's intention as an author, "to use individualism to signify nonconformity in religion and the admirable qualities of self-reliance".<ref name=Lewis-1997/>{{rp|page=678}} This further supports the belief that Defoe used aspects of spiritual autobiography to introduce the benefits of individualism to a not entirely convinced religious community.<ref name=Lewis-1997>{{cite journal |last=Lewis |first=Tess |year=1997 |editor-last=Watt |editor-first=Ian |editor-link=Ian Watt |title=The heroes we deserve |jstor=3851909 |journal=The Hudson Review |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=675–680 |doi=10.2307/3851909}}</ref> J. Paul Hunter has written extensively on the subject of ''Robinson Crusoe'' as apparent spiritual autobiography, tracing the influence of Defoe's Puritan ideology through Crusoe's narrative, and his acknowledgement of human imperfection in pursuit of meaningful spiritual engagements – the cycle of "repentance [and] deliverance".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Halewood |first=William H. |date=1 February 1969 |title=The Reluctant Pilgrim: Defoe's emblematic method and quest for form in Robinson Crusoe. J.Paul Hunter, Defoe, and spiritual autobiography. G.A. Starr |journal=Modern Philology |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=274–278 |doi=10.1086/390091}}</ref>

This spiritual pattern and its episodic nature, as well as the re-discovery of earlier female novelists, have kept ''Robinson Crusoe'' from being classified as a novel, let alone the [[First novel in English|first novel written in English]] – despite the blurbs on some book covers. Early critics, such as [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], admired it, saying that the footprint scene in ''Crusoe'' was one of the four greatest in English literature and most unforgettable; more prosaically, Wesley Vernon has seen the origins of [[forensic podiatry]] in this episode.<ref name=west>{{cite book |first=Richard |last=West |year=1998 |title=Daniel Defoe: The life and strange, surprising adventures |place=New York |publisher=Carroll & Graf |isbn=978-0-7867-0557-3}}</ref> It has inspired a new genre, the ''[[Robinsonade]]'', as works such as [[Johann David Wyss]]' ''[[The Swiss Family Robinson]]'' (1812) adapt its premise and has provoked modern [[Postcolonial literature|postcolonial]] responses, including [[J. M. Coetzee]]'s ''[[Foe (Coetzee novel)|Foe]]'' (1986) and [[Michel Tournier]]'s ''[[Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique]]'' (in English, ''Friday, or, The Other Island'') (1967).  Two sequels followed: Defoe's ''[[The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe]]'' (1719) and his ''[[Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe]]'' (1720). [[Jonathan Swift]]'s ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' (1726) is in part a parody of Defoe's adventure novel.

==Legacy==
{{More citations needed section|date=September 2010}}

===Influence on language===
The book proved to be so popular that the names of the two main protagonists, Crusoe and Friday, have entered the language. During [[World War II]], people who decided to stay and hide in the [[Planned destruction of Warsaw|ruins of the German-occupied city]] of [[Warsaw]] for a period of three winter months, from October to January 1945, when they were rescued by the [[Red Army]], were later called [[Robinson Crusoes of Warsaw]] (''Robinsonowie warszawscy'').<ref>{{cite book |last1=Engelking |first1=Barbara |last2=Libionka |first2=Dariusz |year=2009 |title=Żydzi w Powstańczej Warszawie |pages=260–293 |place=Warsaw, PL |publisher=Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów |isbn=978-83-926831-1-7}}</ref> Robinson Crusoe usually referred to his servant as "my man Friday", from which the term "[[Man Friday]]" (or "Girl Friday") originated.

===Influence on literature===
''Robinson Crusoe'' marked the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Kathleen |last1=Buss |first2=Lee |last2=Karnowski |year=2000 |title=Reading and Writing Literary Genres |page=[https://archive.org/details/readingwritingli0000buss/page/7 7] |publisher=International Reading Association |isbn=978-0872072572 |url=https://archive.org/details/readingwritingli0000buss |url-access=registration}}</ref> Its success led to many imitators; and castaway novels, written by Ambrose Evans, [[Penelope Aubin]], and others, became quite popular in Europe in the 18th and early 19th&nbsp;centuries.<ref>{{cite book |first=Laura |last=Brown |year=2003 |chapter=Ch.&nbsp;7 Oceans and Floods |page=109 |editor-link=Felicity A. Nussbaum |editor-first=Felicity A. |editor-last=Nussbaum |title=The Global Eighteenth Century |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |place=Baltimore, MD}}</ref> Most of these have fallen into obscurity, but some became established, including ''[[The Swiss Family Robinson]]'', which borrowed Crusoe's first name for its title.

[[Jonathan Swift]]'s ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'', published seven years after ''Robinson Crusoe'', may be read as a systematic rebuttal of Defoe's optimistic account of human capability. In ''The Unthinkable Swift: The Spontaneous Philosophy of a Church of England Man'', [[Warren Montag]] argues that Swift was concerned about refuting the notion that the individual precedes society, as Defoe's novel seems to suggest. In ''[[Treasure Island]]'', author [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] parodies{{Citation needed|date=September 2024|reason=to list it in [[Ben Gunn (Treasure Island)]]}} Crusoe with the character of [[Ben Gunn (Treasure Island)|Ben Gunn]], a friendly castaway who was marooned for many years, has a wild appearance, dresses entirely in goat skin, and constantly talks about providence.

Widely translated, the novel swiftly became influential beyond Britain. In [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s treatise on education, ''[[Emile, or on Education]]'', the one book the protagonist is allowed to read before the age of twelve is ''Robinson Crusoe''. Rousseau wants Emile to identify with Crusoe so he can rely upon himself for all of his needs. In Rousseau's view, Emile needs to imitate Crusoe's experience, allowing necessity to determine what is to be learned and accomplished. This is one of the main themes of Rousseau's educational model.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}} Two adaptations of ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in a single volume and translated into Icelandic from Danish, were among the first secular literature ever printed in Iceland.<ref>''Þess Svenska Gustav LandKRONS Og Þess Engelska Bertholds Faabreitileger Robinsons, Edur Liifs Og Æfe Søgur'' (Hólar 1756): Veturliði Óskarsson, "[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Veturlidi-Oskarsson/publication/333032010_The_Language_of_19th_century_translations_IV_Icelandic/links/620c1535634ff774f4d112ea/The-Language-of-19th-century-translations-IV-Icelandic.pdf The Language of 19th Century Translations IV: Iceland]", in ''The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages'', ed. by Oskar Bandle and others, Handbücher zur Sprach- and Kommunikationswissenschaft, 22, 2 vols (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2002), II pp. 1518–22 (p. 1518).</ref>

[[File:Robinson crusoe bookstore.JPG|thumb|Robinson Crusoe bookstore on [[İstiklal Avenue]], [[Istanbul]]]]

In ''[[The Tale of Little Pig Robinson]]'', [[Beatrix Potter]] directs the reader to ''Robinson Crusoe'' for a detailed description of the island (the land of the Bong tree) to which her eponymous hero moves. In [[Wilkie Collins]]' most popular novel, ''[[The Moonstone]]'', one of the chief characters and narrators, Gabriel Betteredge, has faith in all that Robinson Crusoe says and uses the book for a sort of [[divination]]. He considers ''The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe'' the finest book ever written, reads it over and over again, and considers a man but poorly read if he had happened not to read the book.

French novelist [[Michel Tournier]] published ''[[Friday, or, The Other Island]]'' (French ''Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique'') in 1967. His novel explores themes including civilization versus nature, the psychology of solitude, as well as death and sexuality in a retelling of Defoe's ''Robinson Crusoe'' story. Tournier's Robinson chooses to remain on the island, rejecting civilization when offered the chance to escape 28&nbsp;years after being shipwrecked. Likewise, in 1963, [[J. M. G. Le Clézio]], winner of the 2008 [[Nobel Prize in Literature]], published the novel ''[[Le Proces-Verbal]]''. The book's [[Epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] is a quote from ''Robinson Crusoe'', and like Crusoe, the novel's protagonist Adam Pollo suffers long periods of loneliness.

"Crusoe in England", a 183&nbsp;line poem by [[Elizabeth Bishop]], imagines Crusoe near the end of his life, recalling his time of exile with a mixture of bemusement and regret.

[[J. M. Coetzee]]'s 1986 novel ''[[Foe (Coetzee novel)|Foe]]'' recounts the tale of Robinson Crusoe from the perspective of a woman named Susan Barton.

Other stories that share similar themes to ''Robinson Crusoe'' include [[William Golding]]'s ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' (1954),<ref name="s532">{{cite web | last=Little | first=Becky | title=Debunking the Myth of the 'Real' Robinson Crusoe | website=National Geographic | date=2016-09-28 | url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/robinson-crusoe-alexander-selkirk-history | access-date=2024-06-15}}</ref><ref name="Stein_2013">{{cite thesis |last1=Stein |first1=Christopher David |date=May 2013 |title=Narrative Retellings And The Creation Of Identity Discourse In Western Literature: Three Major Adaptations Of Robinson Crusoe |url=https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/6108vd89k |degree=MA |publisher=Humboldt State University |access-date=2024-06-15}}</ref> [[J. G. Ballard]]'s ''[[Concrete Island]]'' (1974),<ref name="j206">{{cite web | last=Levin | first=Martin | title=Concrete Island | website=The New York Times Web Archive | date=2018-04-08 | url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/12/specials/ballard-island.html | access-date=2024-06-15}}</ref> and [[Andy Weir]]'s [[The Martian (Weir novel)|''The Martian'']] (2011).<ref name="n626">{{cite news | last=Achenbach | first=Joel | title=Andy Weir and his book 'The Martian' may have saved NASA and the entire space program | newspaper=Washington Post | date=2015-05-05 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/achenblog/wp/2015/05/05/andy-weir-and-his-book-the-martian-may-have-saved-nasa-and-the-entire-space-program/ | access-date=2024-06-15}}</ref>

==== Inverted Crusoeism ====
The term "inverted Crusoeism" was coined by [[J. G. Ballard]]. The paradigm of Robinson Crusoe has been a recurring topic in Ballard's work.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sellars |first=Simon |year=2012 |title="Zones of Transition": Micronationalism in the work of J.G. Ballard |pages=230–248 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London}}</ref> Whereas the original Robinson Crusoe became a [[castaway]] against his own will, Ballard's protagonists often choose to maroon themselves; hence inverted Crusoeism (e.g., [[Concrete Island]]). The concept provides a reason as to why people would deliberately maroon themselves on a remote island; in Ballard's work, becoming a castaway is as much a healing and empowering process as an entrapping one, enabling people to discover a more meaningful and vital existence.

===Comic strip adaptations===
The story was also illustrated and published in comic book form by ''[[Classics Illustrated]]'' in 1943 and 1957. The much improved 1957 version was inked / penciled by Sam Citron, who is most well known for his contributions to the earlier issues of ''[[Superman (comic book)|Superman]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=William B. |date=15 August 2011 |title=Classics Illustrated: A cultural history |page=203 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |edition=2nd}}</ref> British illustrator Reginald Ben Davis drew a female version of the story titled ''Jill Crusoe, Castaway'' (1950–1959).<ref>{{cite web |title=Reginald Ben Davis |series=artists' webpage |website=lambiek.net |url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/davis_reginald_ben.htm |access-date=16 January 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116052623/https://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/davis_reginald_ben.htm |archive-date=16 January 2020}}</ref>

[[Bob Mankoff]], cartoon editor of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' attributes the genre of [[desert island joke|desert island cartoons]], which began appearing in the publication in the 1930s, to the popularity of Robinson Crusoe.<ref name="vf">{{cite magazine|last1=Handy|first1=Bruce|title=A Guy, a Palm Tree, and a Desert Island: The Cartoon Genre That Just Won't Die|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/05/history-of-the-desert-island-cartoon|accessdate=22 December 2016|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=25 May 2012}}</ref>

===Stage adaptations===
A [[pantomime]] version of ''Robinson Crusoe'' was staged at the [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane]] in 1796, with [[Joseph Grimaldi]] as [[Harlequinade#Pierrot|Pierrot]] in the [[harlequinade]]. The piece was produced again in 1798, this time starring Grimaldi as [[Harlequinade#Pierrot|Clown]]. In 1815, Grimaldi played Friday in another version of ''Robinson Crusoe''.<ref>Findlater, pp.&nbsp;60, 76; Grimaldi (box edition), pp.&nbsp;184–185, 193; and McConnell Stott, p.&nbsp;101</ref>

[[Jacques Offenbach]] wrote an [[opéra comique]] called ''[[Robinson Crusoé]]'', which was first performed at the [[Opéra-Comique]] in Paris on 23&nbsp;November 1867. This was based on the British pantomime version rather than the novel itself. The libretto was by [[Eugène Cormon]] and [[Hector-Jonathan Crémieux]].

There have been a number of other stage adaptations, including those by [[Isaac Pocock]], Jim Helsinger and Steve Shaw and a [[Robinson Crusoe (Musical)|musical]] by Victor Prince.

===Film adaptations===
The [[Robinson Crusoe (1902 film)|first film adaptation]] was produced and directed by [[Georges Méliès]] in 1902.

There is a 1927 silent film titled ''[[Robinson Crusoe (1927 film)|Robinson Crusoe]]''. The Soviet 3D film ''[[Robinson Crusoe (1947 film)|Robinson Crusoe]]'' was produced in 1947.

One of the first adaptations still available dates from 1932 titled ''[[Mr. Robinson Crusoe]]''. This film was produced by [[Douglas Fairbanks|Douglas Fairbanks Sr]] and directed by [[Eddie Sutherland]]. Set in Tahiti, the film depicts Steve Drexel, the main character, trying to survive on a desert island for almost a year. This film was not very successful.

[[Luis Buñuel]] directed ''[[Adventures of Robinson Crusoe]]'' starring [[Dan O'Herlihy]], released in 1954. Luis Buñuel filmed an account which at first viewing appeared to be a rather simple straightforward telling of Robinson Crusoe. A big stand out with this film is that Buñuel breaks the previous films' traditions of having Friday as a slave and Crusoe as the master. The two manage to become actually friends and they operate essentially as equals.

In 1966, [[Walt Disney]] later comedicized the novel with ''[[Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.]]'', featuring [[Dick Van Dyke]]. In this version, Friday became a beautiful woman, but named 'Wednesday' instead.

Variations on the theme include the 1954 ''[[Miss Robin Crusoe]]'', with a female castaway, played by [[Amanda Blake]], and a female Friday, and in 1965 we get the film adaptation ''[[Robinson Crusoe on Mars]]'', starring [[Paul Mantee]], with an alien Friday portrayed by [[Victor Lundin]] and an added character played by [[Adam West]]. [[Byron Haskin]]s manages to underscore Crusoe's removal and field of the red planet that we call mars. Our main character meets a Friday-esque character but makes no effort to try and understand his language. Like the book, in this film, Friday is trying to escape from cruel masters. This movie has lots of appeal to fans of adventures stories and the film has a distinctive visual style that adds to its character.

In 1968, [[United States|American]] writer/director Ralph C. Bluemke made a [[family-friendly]] version of the story titled ''[[Robby (film)|Robby]]'', in which the main characters were portrayed as children. It starred Warren Raum as Robby (Robinson Crusoe) and Ryp Siani as Friday (who were the director's first choices for the roles).<ref name= FKK48>{{cite news| url= http://www.fkk-museum.de/bilder/278_487.jpg | title= Robby| page=2| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20170904070242/http://www.fkk-museum.de/bilder/278_48.jpg| archivedate= 2017-09-04| date= | publisher= republished online at fkk-museum.de| access-date= 2022-04-05}}</ref> Bluemke originally conceived the idea while working at a bank in 1960.<ref name= FKK47>{{cite news| url= http://www.fkk-museum.de/bilder/278_47.jpg | title= Robby| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20170904070242/http://www.fkk-museum.de/bilder/278_47.jpg| archivedate= 2017-09-04| date= | publisher= republished online at fkk-museum.de| access-date= 2022-04-05}}</ref>  Given the nature and location of the script, Bluemke knew from the beginning that the film would require a certain amount of [[nudity]] in order to give it a sense of realism and authenticity. At the time, he was under the impression that the nudity depicted in the film would be condoned as natural and innocent, given the backdrop of the story, and given that the actors involved were [[prepubescent]] boys.<ref name= FKK49>{{cite news| url= http://www.fkk-museum.de/bilder/278_49.jpg | title= Robby| page=3| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20170904070242/http://www.fkk-museum.de/bilder/278_49.jpg| archivedate= 2017-09-04| date= | publisher= republished online at fkk-museum.de| access-date= 2022-04-05}}</ref>  The film failed to secure a wide distribution deal, in part because prospective distributors were wary about the extensive nudity featured in the film. Undaunted, the producers raised enough capital to release the film themselves, acting as their own distributor. It had limited screenings on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in [[New York City]] on August 14, 1968.<ref>{{Cite web| url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063513/releaseinfo|title=Robby (1968) – IMDb|website=[[IMDb]]}}</ref>

[[Peter O'Toole]] and [[Richard Roundtree]] co-starred in a 1975 film ''[[Man Friday (1975 film)|Man Friday]]'' which sardonically portrayed Crusoe as incapable of seeing his dark-skinned companion as anything but an inferior creature, while Friday is more enlightened and sympathetic. In 1988, [[Aidan Quinn]] portrayed Robinson Crusoe in the film ''[[Crusoe (film)|Crusoe]]''. A 1997 movie entitled ''[[Robinson Crusoe (1997 film)|Robinson Crusoe]]'' starred [[Pierce Brosnan]] and received limited commercial success. The 2000 film ''[[Cast Away]]'', with [[Tom Hanks]] as a FedEx employee stranded on an island for many years, also borrows much from the Robinson Crusoe story.

In 1981, [[Czechoslovakia]]n director and animator [[Stanislav Látal]] made a version of the story under the name ''[[Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a Sailor from York]]'' combining traditional and stop-motion animation. The movie was coproduced by regional West Germany broadcaster Südwestfunk Baden-Baden.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}

===Animated adaptations===
In 1988, an animated cartoon for children called ''Classic Adventure Stories Robinson Crusoe'' was released. Crusoe's early sea travels are simplified, as his ship outruns the [[Salé Rovers]] pirates but then gets wrecked in a storm.<ref>{{cite AV media |medium=video |series=Classic Adventure Stories |title=Robinson Crusoe |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsbK1yk3Gcs | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/fsbK1yk3Gcs| archive-date=2021-10-30|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}{{full citation needed|date=September 2020}}</ref>

And then in 1995 the BBC first aired the series ''[[Robinson Sucroe]]'' until 1998, with [[The Children's Channel]] and [[Pop (British and Irish TV channel)|Pop]] repeating it.

=== Radio adaptations ===
''Daniel Defoe – Robinson Crusoe'' was adapted as a two-part play for [[BBC Radio|BBC radio]]. Dramatised by Steve Chambers and directed by Marion Nancarrow, and starring [[Roy Marsden]] and Tom Bevan, it was first broadcast on [[BBC Radio 4]] in May 1998. It was subsequently rebroadcast on [[BBC Radio 4 Extra]] in February 2023.

===TV adaptations===
In 1964, a French film production crew made a 13-part serial of ''[[The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (TV series)|The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe]]''. It starred [[Robert Hoffmann]]. The black-and-white series was dubbed into English and German. In the UK, the BBC broadcast it on numerous occasions between 1965 and 1977.

The [[Crusoe (TV series)|2008–2009 ''Crusoe'' TV series]] was a 13-part show created by Stephen Gallagher.

Two 2000s reality television series, ''[[Expedition Robinson]]'' and ''[[Survivor (franchise)|Survivor]]'', have their contestants try to survive on an isolated location, usually an island. The concept is influenced by ''Robinson Crusoe''.

==Editions==
* ''The life and strange surprizing adventures of Robinson Crusoe: of York, mariner: who lived twenty eight years all alone in an un-inhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river of Oroonoque; ... Written by himself.'', [[Early English Books Online]], 1719. {{cite journal |title=1719 text |website=Oxford Text Archive |date=January 2007 |hdl=20.500.14106/K061280.000 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14106/K061280.000|last1=Defoe |first1=Daniel }}
* ''Robinson Crusoe'', [[Oneworld Publications|Oneworld]] Classics 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-84749-012-4}}
* ''Robinson Crusoe'', [[Penguin Classics]] 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-14-143982-2}}
* ''Robinson Crusoe'', [[Oxford World's Classics]] 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-19-283342-6}}
* ''Robinson Crusoe'', [[Bantam Classic Book Series|Bantam Classics]]
* Defoe, Daniel ''Robinson Crusoe'', edited by Michael Shinagel (New York: Norton, 1994), {{ISBN|978-0393964523}}. Includes a selection of critical essays.
* Defoe, Daniel. ''Robinson Crusoe''. Dover Publications, 1998.
* Defoe, Daniel. ''Robinson Crusoe''. Signet Classic 1961 with afterword by [[Harvey Swados]]
* ''Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe'' [[Rand McNally & Company]]. The Windermere Series 1916. No ISBN. Includes 7&nbsp;illustrations by Milo Winter

==See also==

* [[Cannibalism in literature]]

===In real life===

* [[Alexander Selkirk]]
* [[Crusoe Cave]]
* [[Leendert Hasenbosch]]
* [[Philip Ashton]]

===Novels===

* ''[[The Swiss Family Robinson]]''

===Television and films===

* ''[[Cast Away]]''
* ''[[Crusoe (TV series)|Crusoe]]''
* ''[[Gilligan's Island]]''
* ''[[Lost (TV series)|Lost]]''
* ''[[Miss Robinson Crusoe (1912 film)|Miss Robinson Crusoe]]''
* ''[[Robby (film)|Robby]]''
* ''[[7 Sea Pirates|Seven Sea Pirates]]''

==Footnotes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Additional references==
* {{cite book |author=Boz (Charles Dickens) |author-link=Charles Dickens |year=1853 |title=Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi |location=London |publisher=G. Routledge & Co. |url=https://archive.org/stream/memoirsjosephned00grimuoft#page/n7/mode/2up}}
* {{cite book |last=Findlater |first=Richard |year=1955 |title=Grimaldi King of Clowns |location=London |publisher=Magibbon & Kee |oclc=558202542}}
* Malabou, Catherine. "To Quarantine from Quarantine: Rousseau, Robinson Crusoe, and 'I.'" Critical Inquiry, vol. 47, no. S2, 2021, <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1086/711426</nowiki>.[https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/711426#]
* {{cite book |last=McConnell Stott |first=Andrew |year=2009 |title=The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Canongate Books Ltd. |isbn=978-1-84767-761-7}}
* Ross, Angus, ed. (1965), ''Robinson Crusoe''. Penguin.
* Secord, Arthur Wellesley (1963). ''Studies in the Narrative Method of Defoe''. New York: Russell & Russell. (First published in 1924.)
* Shinagel, Michael, ed. (1994). ''Robinson Crusoe''. Norton Critical Edition. {{ISBN|0-393-96452-3}}. Includes textual annotations, contemporary and modern criticisms, bibliography.
* Severin, Tim (2002). ''In search of Robinson Crusoe'', New York: Basic Books. {{ISBN|0-465-07698-X}}
* {{cite journal |author-link=Stephen Hymer |last=Hymer |first=Stephen |date=September 1971 |title=Robinson Crusoe and the secret of primitive accumulation |journal=Monthly Review |volume=23 |issue=4 |page=11 |doi=10.14452/MR-023-04-1971-08_2 |url=https://monthlyreview.org/2011/09/01/robinson-crusoe-and-the-secret-of-primitive-accumulation/|url-access=subscription }}
* Shinagel, Michael, ed. (1994), ''Robinson Crusoe''. Norton Critical Edition ({{ISBN|0-393-96452-3}}). By Kogul, Mariapan.

===Literary criticism===
* Backscheider, Paula ''Daniel Defoe: His Life'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989). {{ISBN|0801845122}}.
* Ewers, Chris ''Mobility in the English Novel from Defoe to Austen''. (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2018). {{ISBN|978-1787442726}}. Includes a chapter on ''Robinson Crusoe''.
* Richetti, John (ed.) ''The Cambridge Companion to Daniel Defoe''. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) {{ISBN|978-0521675055}}. Casebook of critical essays.
* Rogers, Pat ''Robinson Crusoe'' (London: Allen and Unwin, 1979). {{ISBN|0048000027}}.
* [[Ian Watt|Watt, Ian]] ''The Rise of the Novel'' (London: Pimlico, 2000). {{ISBN|978-0712664271}}.

==External links==
{{Wikisource}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/daniel-defoe/the-life-and-adventures-of-robinson-crusoe}}{{Gutenberg|no=12623|name=Robinson Crusoe}}
* [http://www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1719-robinson-crusoe.html ''Robinson Crusoe''] at ''Editions Marteau'' (annotated text of the first edition) 
* {{librivox book | title=Robinson Crusoe}}
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6936/6936-h/6936-h.htm ''Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable''] by [[Mary Godolphin (writer)|Mary Godolphin]] (1723–1764), hosted at [[Project Gutenberg]]
* [http://ufdc.ufl.edu/defoe "Robinson Crusoe & the Robinsonades"], a free online collection of editions of ''Robinson Crusoe'' from the [[University of Florida Baldwin Library|Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature]]

{{Daniel Defoe}}
{{Pirates}}
{{Robinson Crusoe}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1719 novels]]
[[Category:18th-century British novels]]
[[Category:English adventure novels]]
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[[Category:Fiction about castaways]]
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[[Category:Adventure film characters|Crusoe, Robinson]]
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