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'Robinson Crusoe' Review

Daniel Defoe's Classic Novel About Getting Stranded on a Desert Island

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Have you ever wondered what you would do if you washed up on a deserted island? Daniel Defoe dramatizes such an experience in Robinson Crusoe ! Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was inspired by the story of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who went to sea in 1704.

Selkirk requested that his shipmates put him ashore on Juan Fernandez, where he remained until he was rescued by Woodes Rogers in 1709. Defoe may have interviewed Selkirk. Also, several version of Selkirk's tale were available to him. He then built on the story, adding his imagination, his experiences, and a whole history of other stories to create the novel for which he has become so well-known.

Daniel Defoe

In his lifetime, Defoe published more than 500 books, pamphlets, articles , and poems. Unfortunately, none of his literary endeavors ever brought him much financial success or stability. His occupations ranged from spying and embezzling to soldiering and pamphleteering. He had started out as a merchant, but he soon found himself bankrupt, which led him to choose other occupations. His political passions, his flare for libel, and his inability to stay out of debt also caused him to be imprisoned seven times.

Even if he wasn't financially successful, Defoe managed to make a significant mark on literature . He influenced the development of the English novel, with his journalistic detail and characterization. Some claim that Defoe wrote the first true English novel: and he's often considered to be the father of British journalism.

At the time of its publication, in 1719, Robinson Crusoe was a success. Defoe was 60 when he wrote this first novel; and he would write seven more in the years to come, including Moll Flanders (1722), Captain Singleton (1720), Colonel Jack (1722), and Roxana (1724).

The Story of Robinson Crusoe

It's no wonder the story was such a success... The story is about a man who is stranded on a desert island for 28 years. With the supplies he's able to salvage from the wrecked ship, Robinson Crusoe eventually builds a fort and then creates for himself a kingdom by taming animals, gathering fruit, growing crops, and hunting. The book contains adventure of all sorts: pirates, shipwrecks, cannibals, mutiny, and so much more... Robinson Crusoe's story is also Biblical in many of its themes and discussions. It's the story of the prodigal son, who runs away from home only to find calamity. Elements of the story of Job also appear in the story, when in his illness, Robinson cries out for deliverance: "Lord, be my help, for I am in great distress." Robinson questions God, asking, "Why has God done this to me? What have I done to be thus used?" But he makes peace ​and goes on with his solitary existence.

After more than 20 years on the island, Robinson encounters cannibals , which represent the first human contact he's had since being stranded: "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." Then, he's alone — with only the brief far-off view of a shipwreck — until he rescues Friday from the cannibals.

Robinson finally makes his escape when a ship of mutineers sail to the island. He and his companions help the British captain to take back control of ​the ship. He sets sail for England on December 19, 1686--after spending 28 years, 2 months, and 19 days on the island. He arrives back in England, after being gone for 35 years, and finds that he is a wealthy man.

Loneliness and the Human Experience

Robinson Crusoe is the tale of a lonely human being who manages to survive for years without any human companionship. It's a story about the different ways that men cope with reality when hardship comes, but it's also the tale of a man creating his own reality, rescuing a savage and fashioning his own world out of the untamed wilderness of a desert island.

The tale has influenced many other tales, including The Swiss Family Robinson , Philip Quarll , and Peter Wilkins . Defoe followed up the tale with his own sequel, The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe , but that tale was not met with a much success as the first novel. In any case, the figure of Robinson Crusoe has become an important archetypal figure in literature — Robinson Crusoe was described by Samuel T. Coleridge as "the universal man."

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A Summary and Analysis of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Robinson Crusoe, often called the first English novel, was written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1719. The novel is the tale of one man’s survival on a desert island following a shipwreck. Published in 1719, the book didn’t carry Defoe’s name, and it was offered to the public as a true account of real events, documented by a real man named Crusoe. But readers were immediately sceptical.

In the same year as the novel appeared, a man named Charles Gildon actually published Robinson Crusoe Examin’d and Criticis’d , in which he showed that Crusoe was made up and the events of the novel were fiction. The name ‘Crusoe’, by the way, may have been taken from Timothy Cruso, who had been a classmate of Defoe’s and who had gone on to write guidebooks.  

What follows is a short summary of the main plot of Robinson Crusoe , followed by an analysis of this foundational novel and its key themes.

Robinson Crusoe : summary

The novel, famously, is about how the title character, Robinson Crusoe, becomes marooned on an island off the north-east coast of South America. As a young man, Crusoe had gone to sea in the hope of making his fortune. Crusoe is on a ship bound for Africa, where he plans to buy slaves for his plantations in South America, when the ship is wrecked on an island and Crusoe is the only survivor.

Alone on a desert island, Crusoe manages to survive thanks to his pluck and pragmatism. He keeps himself sane by keeping a diary, manages to build himself a shelter, and finda a way of salvaging useful goods from the wrecked ship, including guns.

Twelve years pass in this way, until one momentous day, Crusoe finds a single human footprint in the sand! But he has to wait another ten years before he discovers the key to the mystery: natives from the nearby islands, who practise cannibalism, have visited the island, and when they next return, Crusoe attacks them, using his musket salvaged from the shipwreck all those years ago.

He takes one of the natives captive, and names him Man Friday, because – according to Crusoe’s (probably inaccurate) calendar, that’s the day of the week on which they first meet.

Crusoe teaches Man Friday English and converts him to Christianity. When Crusoe learns that Man Friday’s fellow natives are keeping white prisoners on their neighbouring island, he vows to rescue them. Together, the two of them build a boat. When more natives attack the island with captives, Crusoe and Friday rescue the captives and kill the natives. The two captives they’ve freed are none other than Friday’s own father and a Spanish man.

Crusoe sends them both off to the other island in the newly made boat, telling them to free the other prisoners. Meanwhile, a ship arrives at the island: a mutiny has taken place on board, and the crew throw the captain and his loyal supporters onto the island.

Before the ship can leave, Crusoe has teamed up with the captain and his men, and between them they retake the ship from the mutineers, who settle on the island while Crusoe takes the ship home to England.

Robinson Crusoe has been away from England for many years by this stage – he was marooned on his island for over twenty years – and his parents have died. But he has become wealthy, thanks to his plantations in Brazil, so he gets married and settles down. His wife dies a few years later, and Crusoe – along with Friday – once again leaves home.

Robinson Crusoe : analysis

Robinson Crusoe is a novel that is probably more known about than it is read these days, and this leads to a skewed perception of what the book is really about. In the popular imagination, Robinson Crusoe is a romantic adventure tale about a young man who goes to sea to have exciting experiences, before finding himself alone on a desert island and accustoming himself, gradually, to his surroundings, complete with a parrot for his companion.

In reality, this is only partially true (although he does befriend a parrot at one point). But the key to understanding Defoe’s novel is its context: early eighteenth-century mercantilism and Enlightenment values founded on empiricism (i.e. observing what’s really there) rather than some anachronistic Romantic worship of the senses, or ‘man’s communion with his environment’.

And talking of his environment, Crusoe spends the whole novel trying to build a boat so he can escape his island, and leaves when the first ship comes along. While he’s there, he bends the island’s natural resources to his own ends, rather than acclimatising to his alien surroundings.

In this respect, he’s not so different from a British person on holiday in Alicante, who thinks speaking English very loudly at the Spanish waiter will do the job very nicely rather than attempting to converse in Spanish.

This tells us a great deal about Robinson Crusoe the man but also Robinson Crusoe the novel. 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.

Crusoe 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. Man Friday is, in the last analysis, his own private servant.

But was Robinson Crusoe the first such ‘Robinsonade’? Not really. 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. But it is not called Robinson Crusoe. 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.’

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.

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.

Although 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.

Severin cites the case of a man named Henry Pitman, who wrote a short book recounting his adventures in the Caribbean (not the Pacific, which is where Selkirk was marooned) following his escape from a penal colony and his subsequent shipwrecking and survival on a desert island.

Pitman appears to have lived in the same area of London as Defoe, and Defoe may have met Pitman in person and learned of his experiences first-hand. It is also revealing that both men had taken part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 (in the wake of which, at Judge Jeffreys’ infamous ‘Bloody Assizes’, Defoe was lucky not to be sentenced to death).

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2 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe”

Ummm.. who was “the wise old muslim”? What was the book? Another precursor is Henry Neville’s The Isle of Pines, pub;ished a few years earlier. https://www.cbeditions.com/GoodMorningMrCrusoe.html for another intreresting history and meditation on RC.

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Review: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

At 19 we all argue with our parents thinking we know better so it is of little surprise that the young Robinson Crusoe back in 1651 ignored the well-meaning advice of his father, and joined a ship heading from Hull to London.

During this voyage, however, fate struck a nasty blow and the weather worsened leaving the ship stranded in waters near Yarmouth. After several days the weather refused to abate and the ship, unfortunately, could not take the constant pounding. Fortunately for many onboard including Crusoe a ship nearby had noticed their distress signal and sent a small boat to rescue them.

For many, after an experience like this, they may reflect and return home with their tail between their legs and admit that perhaps their father was correct. Robinson Crusoe however, had other ideas. When onboard the sinking ship he had prayed to God asking to survive and if he did he would return to the family. Just a few days on dry land though led to other thoughts. It appears he had forgotten how he felt during the awful weather on board and instead of heading home to Hull he decided to join a ship heading for Africa.

The first voyage he embarked on to Africa was a seemingly successful one that saw him returned safely so he decided to remain with the ship. Unfortunately, the captain passed away, and the man taking over was not quite such a good seafarer. During the next journey, the vessel Robinson Crusoe was on was attacked by pirates and while most of the crew perished he was taken and made a slave.

For two years he worked for his master until an opportunity arose to escape which he did successfully and ended up in Brazil where he brought a patch of land to grow sugar cane.

It would appear however that Crusoe is not the brightest of individuals or perhaps cannot see his own failings because after 4 years working on his now quite successful plantation, greed has got the better of him. He has mentioned in passing to others the ability to buy slaves in ‘Guinea’ which is still quite an unknown thing at this time in Brazil. So when the offer of a trip across the seas to procure these slaves comes up Crusoe jumps at the change to join the expedition on the promise that he will gain many for himself.

This time, however, Robinson Crusoe’s luck seems to have run out with the ship sailing directly into a hurricane and pushing them towards the Caribbean islands. With the ship wreaked eleven souls climb abroad the life raft but do not make it to shore. Crusoe seems to be the lone survivor of this tragic wreckage.

“I walk’d about on the shore, lifting up my hands, and my whole being, as I may say, wrapt up in my contemplation of my deliverance,..reflecting upon my comrades that were drown’d, and that there should not be one soul sav’d but myself; as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes.. “(Page 81)

To begin with, his spirits were high. The ship, wrecked just offshore, was within swimming distance so daily Crusoe would swim out to recover as many supplies as possible. He even created a weatherproof shelter and a safe surround to protect himself against predators.  However, after a freak storm the ship was completely washed away and with that Crusoe’s mood changed and it takes all his energy to try and drag himself back out of his depressive state.

“Well, you are in a desolate condition, ’tis true, but pray remember, Where are the rest of you? Did not you come eleven of you into the boat, where are the ten? Why were not they sav’ d and you lost?” (Page 97)

As you progress through the narrative Crusoe’s monologue often reads like manic ramblings of someone going insane which quite possibly would happen if you were stranded all alone with no one else for company. But he also seems to possess the ability to adapt quickly to his surroundings. Of course, we don’t gain the full background to his skills before he embarks on his life as a sailor and explorer but you get the sense that he is from a privileged background and therefore would not normally work with his hands so he seems far more able then you would probably expect – cutting down trees, creating wicker baskets and pots made of clay, making spades and other tools out of very little.

After so long alone, he becomes so comfortable in his surroundings that he lets his guard down. That is, until one day he sees a footprint in the sand he is certain isn’t his. We then have an extended monologue about how he is worried that savages will come onto the island, find and eat him for he was convinced that anyone coming onto the island was, in fact, a cannibal.

He would spend hours, weeks and years thinking about how he could, should he need to, kill as many of them as possible should they discover his hiding place.

“… but all was abortive, nothing could be possible to take effect, unless I was to be there to do it my self; and what could one man do among them, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty of them together, with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with which they could shoot as true to a mark… “(Page 200)

These thoughts continued for years, both consciously and in his dreams. Then, one day, after 25 years of solitude, while observing a group of savages, Robinson Crusoe saw one of the captives break away, running for his life.

“I was call’d plainly by Providence to save this poor creature’s life ; I immediately run down the ladders with all possible expedition, fetch’d my two guns, for they were both but at the foot of the ladders,… And getting up again, with the same haste, to the top of the hill… “(Page 233)

This is our first introduction to Friday, a character probably just as memorable as Robinson Crusoe in this narrative. Up until this point, it has been one very long, and at times, dragging monologue of how one man comes to survive on an island. Don’t get me wrong, if such a thing could happen, we should all be in awe of the survivor but it did, at times, cause the plot to become a bit of a bore.

For the remaining chapters, we read about how Crusoe taught man Friday how to speak English and complete all the tasks asked of him. We also read about their unlikely saviours and how they finally escape the island after nearly 28 years.

My Thoughts on Robinson Crusoe

I really wanted to enjoy this novel for many reasons. Firstly, the story is meant to be based on the real-life travels and disasters of Alexander Selkirk , a Navy officer who lived as a castaway for four years on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific, and secondly, many literary historians have singled out Robinson Crusoe as the first instance of a realistic English novel.  Finally, I initially picked the novel up to read for the first time in 2019, exactly 300 years since it was published so it was a big milestone for the book.

Unfortunately, the story didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I really wanted to enjoy the narrative, and at times, I loved reading about how someone could live in solitude for so long developing their survival skills but at other times the monologue of Crusoe’s experiences became so monotonous I struggled to continue.  Possibly because of the time in which it was written, it is also heavily laden with religious references which could be extremely off-putting for people. Finally, there is a strong theme of slavery running throughout which was fundamentally difficult to read. Crusoe went from wanting slaves to becoming a slave himself. The element I struggled with however was the fact that after his own treatment he was quick to enslave others again for his benefit.  Surely, after you have been oppressed yourself, the last thing you would want to do would be to treat someone else in a similar manner.

Of course, Defoe’s plot is fictional and therefore he was probably not expecting people 300 years later to pull his narrative apart and look for underlying meanings in the way we often do today.

On the surface, it is a travelogue full of descriptive episodes and exploration of different countries and continents which I know many will enjoy.

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Robinson crusoe, daniel defoe , virginia woolf  ( introduction ).

320 pages, Hardcover

First published April 25, 1719

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Those people cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them because they see and covet what He has not given them. All of our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.

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Analyzing 'Robinson Crusoe' by Daniel Defoe: a Comprehensive Review of The Novel

• Categories: Literary Criticism Novel Robinson Crusoe

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Published: Dec 17, 2024

Words: 619 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

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The plot: a tale of survival, thematic exploration: isolation and self-discovery, cultural significance: colonialism and capitalism, the characterization: more than just a survivor, conclusion: an enduring legacy.

• Defoe, Daniel (1719). Robinson Crusoe.
• Kahn,Rodney(2005)."The Influence Of Robinson Crusoe On The Novel." Journal Of British Studies
• Morrison,Toni(1998)."The Bluest Eye". New York: Knopf Publishing Group
• Todorov,Tzvetan(1984)."The Conquest Of America." New York : HarperCollins Publishers

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• Review: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

"Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable, but there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world, that we may always find in it something to comfort our selves from, and to set in the description of good and evil, on the credit side of the accompt." Page 54

"It put me upon reflecting, how little repining there would be among mankind, at any condition of life, if people would rather compare their condition with those that are worse, in order to be thankful, than be always comparing them with those which are better, to assist their murmurings and complainings." Page 132

"Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay, two or three savages, if I had them so as to make them entirely slaves to me, to do whatever I should direct them, and to prevent their being able at any time to do me any hurt." Page 158

Would you like to comment?

I have to say, I'm kind of very glad I didn't have time to join you in this read. I might even delete it from my kindle library. It's a shame it wasn't more enjoyable though. I wonder what other novels were published around the same time that have become classics that we would think we're awful. With the way they ban books these days, I'm surprised they haven't banned this one, but then it possibly speaks to their agenda.

Thanks Claire, not sure you would have enjoyed this, but I don't regret reading it and I'm glad I can finally have an opinion about it. Another classic I didn't enjoy was Frankenstein but again, I'm glad I've read both of these books because they keep coming up in general reference and now I'm informed enough to say I don't like Robinson Crusoe or Frankenstein! Even if that lands me in the minority 😉

Thanks for the buddy read Tracey. I certainly got a few laughs from the story. Defoe had a wonderful imagination.

Thanks Veronica, it was motivating for me knowing you were reading it at the same time, hope to do another one again some time!

Literally just finished it last night and have been thinking about it all morning. I'm with you all the way in that it was long and windy, not to mention extremely boring in parts. But I have to remind myself that it was probably a rollicking read when it was published, a wide-eyed audience entranced by this exotic tale of a far flung corner of the world. I did have a chuckle every time Crusoe constantly lamented his bad luck of being stranded upon this deserted island. It sounded pretty idyllic to me - my own private island with endless supplies of meat, fruit, fish, eggs and so on. I'd take that any day! Thanks for the review and enabling me to share my thoughts from Ireland on a chilly Thursday morning in December:)

Thanks so much for your comment Connor, it's funny how books can unite readers across the seas isn't it? I'm still shocked at how old this classic is and I was chuckling when it came to descriptions about his outfit. After I finished reading the book I had a look at some of the old film adaptations to see how they interpreted his goat skin ensemble! It pleases me no end to hear you were reading this in chilly Ireland and then stumbled on to this review. Readers know no barriers 😊 What classic are you going to tackle next year? I was thinking I might give The Count of Monte Cristo a try.

Hi Tracey, I'm starting to wonder if the word 'classic' is bandied about too much. I've tried and failed in the past year to get to the end of either Dracula or Moby Dick. And there are too many great books out there to be persevering with ones that are hard work. One that I revert back to time and again is Watership Down, probably my favourite book of all time. Right now I'm reading Poor by Katriona O'Sullivan. It's gritty, sad and relatable for someone like me who was raised on a council housing estate. As for The Count of Monte Cristo, I've seen the film and it was really good. I'll await your review before I tackle the literary version though:) Here's the link to Poor, if anyone is interested: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/452168/poor-by-osullivan-katriona/9780241996768

Oh yeah, I should have asked if you review books anywhere? On a blog or Good Reads etc? Would love to check out your thoughts on Watership Down.

Hi Tracey, I don't review books at all, in fact Carpe Librum was the first place I've ever left my thoughts on a novel. But I'll definitely keep an eye on your page as I'm always looking for something to read.

Thanks Conor and in that case I'm honoured that this is the first time you've commented on someone's review. Next year will be my 20th year reviewing books here on Carpe Librum so I'm stoked I was able to entice you into leaving one. I hope you manage to pick up a few new reads over the festive season!

Hi Connor, I agree with you about the overuse of the word 'classic' although I'm choosing to read these books because they keep coming up or continue being referenced or studied decades/centuries after publication. I guess I'm hoping for an inspiring or educational reading experience and like you I'm often disappointed. I hated Frankenstein, Fahrenheit 451, Slaughter-House Five and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, although I don't regret the time spent reading them because I now understand the references and have an opinion. Classics can sometimes be a bit of a slog, but then I've discovered new favourites this way too, Stoner by John Williams and yes, Watership Down, loved that book! I abandoned Moby Dick too, but I'm hoping The Count of Monte Cristo will be a little more accessible. I haven't heard of Poor by Katriona O'Sullivan so I'm off to check it out, thanks for the link!

Thanks for your comment, Carpe Librum!

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• Top 5 Books of 2023
• Top 5 Books of 2022
• Top 5 Books of 2021
• Top 5 Books of 2020
• Top 5 Books of 2019
• Top 5 Books of 2018
• Top 5 Books of 2017
• Top 5 Books of 2016
• Top 5 Books of 2015
• Top 5 Books of 2014

My Fav Book Lists

• 4 Books About Sisters
• 8 Books with Birds on the Cover
• 2020 Mid Year Favourites
• My Top 10 Books of the Decade
• 2019 Mid Year Favourites
• Big Books To Get Stuck Into
• Gothic Tales
• Popular Steampunk Books

My Favourite Blogs

• All The Books I Can Read
• Australian Women Writers Challenge
• Booklover Book Reviews
• Boomerang Books Blog
• Carole's Chatter
• Claires Reads & Reviews
• Deliciously Fictitious
• Knowledge Lost
• Lost In A Good Book
• Mrs B's Book Reviews
• My Readers Block
• Noveltea Corner
• Once Upon A Time Book Blog
• Passages to the Past
• Productive Blogging
• Proud Book Reviews
• Reading, Writing and Riesling
• Savidge Reads
• The Book Muse
• The Burgeoning Bookshelf
• The Cozy Book Blog
• The Reading Room
• Theresa Smith Writes
• Whispering Gums

Australian Blogger Directory

Blog Directory

NetGalley Professional Reader

NetGalley Top Reviewer

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