Robinson Crusoe

Widely acknowledged as the first English novel, Daniel Defoe's adventure story of a shipwrecked sailor became an instant classic upon its publication in 1719 and the yardstick for countless castaway narratives to follow. Robinson Crusoe is more than a great yarn, it is an allegory rife with moral and religious symbolism and significance, seen through the eyes of an ordinary man struggling to survive in extraordinary circumstancesThe book is a kind of epic of human endeavour ceaselessly striving after some fresh comfort or betterment. Opinions differ as to the sincerity of the religious psychology; there can be no doubt as to the truth of the touches which indicate the desire for companionship.