The World's Greatest Writers
Daniel Defoe
(1719)
'Robinson Crusoe Shipwrecked at Yarmouth', c1719. Illustration from Daniel Defoe's "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner", the story of a fictional English castaway who spends 28 years on a remote island. The book, first published in 1719, was probably based on the real-life experiences of the castaway Alexander Selkirk and is considered by many as the first English novel.