Historical Treasures - FIRST EDITION OF ROBINSON CRUSOE

Widely considered one of the first English novels, copies of this first edition are increasingly rare England, 1719

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Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, alongside works such as John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), is considered one of the first examples of the English novel. Immensely popular upon its release, by the end of its first year of publication Robinson Crusoe had received no less than four editions.

The novel is written from the perspective of Robinson Crusoe, a young man who disobeys the wishes of his parents to travel the high seas. Crusoe becomes shipwrecked and the novel largely details his life on the uninhabited island. After 20 years Crusoe enrols an indigenous person (who he refers to as ‘Man Friday’) as his servant. Friday is an inherently problematic character and led to other writers such as Adrian Mitchell with his 1972 play Man Friday to address these elements. Defoe’s novel is told from the perspective of the title character and indeed was originally attributed to him too.