Robinson Crusoe

Defoe's 1719 castaway: twenty-eight years on his island, and the seed of the English novel.

Specifications & Metrics

author

Daniel Defoe

type

Adventure novel / faux memoir

era

Augustan Britain (1719)

language

English

setting

A Caribbean island off the Orinoco mouth

parts

1 volume

Relative Scale in Novels

Core Principles & Analysis

• Published in 1719 as the memoir of a real man, without Defoe's name.
• Its castaway spent twenty-eight years, two months, and nineteen days ashore.
• A whole genre of imitations, Robinsonades, followed within years.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Robinson Crusoe