Numerous scholars and historians, including Tim Severin in his book Seeking Robinson Crusoe, have challenged this widely held belief. Indeed, Defoe’s debt to the story of Alexander Selkirk as his source material for Robinson Crusoe is almost certainly overplayed.

Yes, Robinson Crusoe wasn’t the first fictional narrative to take place on a desert island, although it has proved the most influential among English writers.Īlthough Defoe is widely believed to have been influenced by the real-life experiences of the Scottish man Alexander Selkirk (who spent over four years alone on a Pacific island, living on fish, berries, and wild goats), one important textual influence that has been proposed is Hai Ebn Yokdhan’s book. That book is The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan, known as the first Arabic novel (just as Robinson Crusoe is often cited as the first English novel), written in the twelfth century by a Moorish philosopher living in Spain. It was written by a wise old Muslim from Andalusia and is the third most translated text from Arabic after the Koran and the Arabian Nights.’ This, from Martin Wainwright: ‘There is a tale for our troubled times about a man on a desert island, who keeps goats, builds a shelter and finally discovers footprints in the sand. Man Friday is, in the last analysis, his own private servant.īut was Robinson Crusoe the first such ‘Robinsonade’? Not really. It was written at a time when Britain was beginning to expand its colonial sights, and it would shortly become the richest and most powerful country on earth, thanks to its imperial expeditions in the Caribbean, Africa, and parts of Asia, notably India.Ĭrusoe embodies this pioneering mercantile spirit: he is obsessed with money (he even picks up coins on his island and keeps them, even though he cannot spend them), and takes great pleasure in the physical objects, such as the guns and powder, which he rescues from the wreck. This tells us a great deal about Robinson Crusoe the man but also Robinson Crusoe the novel. As Gilbert Phelps observes (in his now rather outdated but still brilliantly readable Introduction to Fifty British Novels, 1600-1900 (Reader’s Guides) ), the moment in the novel when Robinson Crusoe shows the most emotion is probably when he’s back in England and discovers how rich his plantations have made him. And, of course, the very reason Robinson Crusoe ends up shipwrecked is because he’s making a business trip, to purchase slaves.

Robinson crusoe daniel defoe book