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Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe's *Robinson Crusoe*, first published in 1719, is often called the first English novel—the archetypal tale of a shipwrecked mariner who builds a life alone on a Caribbean island through ingenuity, faith, and sheer stubbornness. This Scribner edition presents the story with N. C. Wyeth's dramatic illustrations, painted in 1920, which give Crusoe's solitude and labor a heroic, sun-struck grandeur. The novel is both a gripping survival story and the founding text of a whole genre of castaways and self-reliant heroes, though modern readers also reckon with its colonial assumptions, especially in the figure of Friday. As a Wyeth-illustrated classic it's a beautiful object as much as a book. For lovers of adventure, illustration history, or the roots of the English novel, it's a rich and handsome edition to have.
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The author
Daniel Defoe (c. 1660–1731) was an English trader, pamphleteer, and spy who turned to fiction late in life. Robinson Crusoe, drawing loosely on real castaway accounts such as Alexander Selkirk's, became a sensation and a cornerstone of the modern novel.
The book
The novel recounts Crusoe's twenty-eight years marooned, his practical mastery of his island, his spiritual reckoning, and his fraught relationship with Friday. This Scribner edition carries N. C. Wyeth's illustrations, which the artist created in 1920 and which were reproduced in subsequent illustrated printings.
How to read it
Crusoe rewards reading on two levels: as a thrilling survival narrative and as a document of its era's commercial and colonial mindset, now studied as much for its assumptions as its adventures. Wyeth's plates add a further layer of pleasure for collectors of illustrated classics.
For more context
The book launched the 'Robinsonade,' an enduring genre of castaway stories, and remains one of the most widely published novels in the language.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Daniel Defoe
- Publisher
- Scribners
- ISBN
- 0-684-17947
- Format
- Hardcover
- Shelf
- Fiction
- Location
- Maine
Scribner edition with N. C. Wyeth illustrations.