Description

A young man weighs two very different options for his future at the start of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Robinson can either settle down to a comfortable career in law or set sail for faraway places, as he passionately longs to do. Although his family urges him to choose the safer path, Robinson cannot resist the lure of the sea. He leaves town on a merchant ship and survives a dangerous accident to enjoy success as a sailor. Inspired to continue on his quest, Robinson embarks again, although his next voyage will bring him far more adventure than even this daring young man ever bargained for. Pirates capture Robinson's ship and enslave everyone aboard. Crusoe is forced to gamble with his life in order to escape his captors. Luckily, he gets away, only to end up shipwrecked alone on a strange island. Crusoe must rely on his will, intelligence, and courage as he attempts to survive in his new surroundings. Unfriendly native inhabitants and an unexpected ally await the young adventurer as he contends with day-to-day challenges and plots his return home. Will Crusoe ever see England again? Readers are kept on edge as we relive the tale of a man who seeks the wide world and instead is forced to find himself in the face of danger and the unknown.

About the Author

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) led a life of mystery and intrigue. Born in London, Defoe had witnessed several catastrophic British events, such as the horrible 1666 Great Fire of London, by the time he was ten years old. As an adult, Defoe became a businessman and led a fairly respectable life, although he did dabble in his share of trouble. Defoe took part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 and was later thrown in prison for unpaid debts. He was an outspoken voice in British politics, and wrote tracts on many topics, government, religion and the occult being some of his favorite themes. Defoe was involved in countless aspects of the volatile and exciting era of pre-Industrial England. His adventurous life was full of ups and downs, rather like the plots of some of his most beloved works, Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose ...