Origins

The adventure novel Robinson Crusoe was published by the almost sixty-year-old English merchant, adventurer and journalist Daniel Defoe on 25 April 1719 under the very long title: The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner [...] Written by Himself. The author had a sequel published the same year: The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. A year later, another sequel appeared: Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, with his Vision of the Angelic World. Written by himself (1720). The original work is about 300 pages long.

The author first published the story anonymously. The title page of the first edition stated that Robinson Crusoe was the author of the story. It was meant to look as if the ageing adventurer was tel...