Daniel Defoe · 1719 · survival

Daniel Defoe's 1719 castaway tale, often called the first English novel. Robinson Crusoe runs off to sea, is enslaved by Barbary corsairs, escapes to a planter's life in Brazil, then is shipwrecked alone on a tropical island near the mouth of the Orinoco, where he survives twenty-eight years, masters his small kingdom and saves the man he names Friday. Rescued at last, he returns to Europe the long way, overland across the wolf-haunted Pyrenees. A story of solitude, ingenuity and endurance.

1. 1
   Hull

   Against his father's wishes, young Robinson Crusoe of York takes ship at Hull for a wandering life at sea.

2. 2
   Sale

   On a voyage to Guinea he is seized by Sallee corsairs and held two years as a slave at Sale, until he escapes by boat down the African coast.

3. 3
   Salvador

   Rescued by a Portuguese ship and carried to Brazil, he prospers as a planter near Salvador, on the Bay of All Saints.

4. 4
   The Island

   A slaving voyage founders in a storm; the sole survivor, he is cast away on a desert island near the mouth of the Orinoco for twenty-eight years.

5. 5
   Lisbon

   Delivered at last by an English ship, with his man Friday beside him, he sails to Lisbon to reclaim the fortune his Brazil plantation has earned.

6. 6
   London

   Then home overland across Spain and the snowbound Pyrenees, beating off wolves, to England and a settled life at last.