Robinson Crusoe (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) FROM OUR EDITORS
Barnes & Noble Classics offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Robinson Crusoe is widely regarded as the first English novel, and it endures as one of the most popular and influential adventure stories of all time. Daniel Defoeﾽs classic tale of shipwreck and survival on an uninhabited island was an instant success when first published in 1719 and has inspired countless imitations, prompting Jules Verne to admit: "We have all written ﾽRobinsons,ﾽ but it is a moot question if any of them would have seen the light had it not been for their famous prototype."
In his own words, Robinson Crusoe tells how a terrible storm drowned all his shipmates and left him marooned on a deserted island. Forced to overcome despair, doubt, and self-pity, he struggles to create a life for himself in the wilderness. From practically nothing, Crusoe painstakingly learns how to make pottery, grow crops, domesticate livestock, and build a house. His many adventures are recounted in vivid detail, including a fierce battle with cannibals and his rescue of Friday, the man who becomes his trusted companion.
Full of enchanting detail and daring heroics, Robinson Crusoe is a celebration of courage, patience, ingenuity, and hard work. This edition collects both the first and second parts of Defoeﾽs rousing adventure.
Introduction and Notes by L. J. Swingle
Professor in the English Department at the University of Kentucky, L. J. Swingle is the author of The Obstinate Questionings of British Romanticism (Louisiana State University Press, 1987), Romanticism and Anthony Trollope (University of Michigan Press, 1990), and a variety of essays and reviews.
Daniel Defoe was born in London in 1660 into a Puritan household. Defoeﾽs great interest in politics led him in 1685 to join a rebellion against King James II, a Roman Catholic. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the subsequent overthrow of James II by William III, Defoe entered the secret service and gained King Williamﾽs favor. During this time he wrote polemical pamphlets and a wildly popular poem, The True-Born Englishman (1701). Having earned high respect as a writer, Defoe played both sides of the field to earn his living, writing political tracts and gathering intelligence on secret missions. Turning his talents to fiction, Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe (1719), which was welcomed by a public hungry for exotic and adventurous tales. Sequels quickly followed, as did his classic work Moll Flanders (1722).
"Defoeﾽs book comes to us from an early-eighteenth-century world of human experience that called for visions of triumph, an orientation of thought that anxiously needed to believe in the possibility of a Crusoe, an Everyman, achieving success. To Everyman, in the age when Robinson Crusoe was published, reliable comfort was not so sure a thing as we like to believe it is for us today."ﾽfrom the Introduction by L. J. Swingle
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