ROBINSON CRUSOE ~ The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York

Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that chronicles the life of the eponymous character, a young Englishman who craves adventure at sea. Despite his father's wishes for him to pursue a modest and secure life, Crusoe sets out on a sea voyage in 1651, but is soon captured by Barbary pirates and enslaved. He escapes and ends up in Brazil, where he becomes a plantation owner. However, his thirst for adventure reignites, leading him to embark on a fateful trip to Africa. During the voyage, his ship is wrecked in a storm, and Crusoe finds himself stranded on a deserted island near the Orinoco River, off the coast of Venezuela. He is the sole survivor and must fend for himself with only a few salvaged supplies. Over the next 28 years, Crusoe becomes adept at hunting, farming, and crafting, creating a life for himself while contending with isolation, despair, and occasional encounters with cannibals and mutineers. He converts one of the cannibals, whom he names Friday, into Christianity and makes him his companion. Eventually, Crusoe is rescued by a passing ship and returns to England to find that he has become a wealthy man thanks to his Brazilian investments. The novel explores themes of survival, self-reliance, civilization, and redemption, and is considered one of the earliest examples of the realistic fiction genre.