Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Daniel Defoe: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe
Appendix A: Daniel Defoe, Preface and Publisher’sIntroduction to
Serious Reflections during the Life andSurprising Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe (1720)
Appendix B: From Charles Gildon, The Life and StrangeSurprising
Adventures of Mr. D—— De F—— (1719)
Appendix C: Castaway Narratives
From Ibn Tufayl, The Improvement of Human Reason, Exhibited in
the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan (1708)
Accounts of Alexander Selkirk
- From Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage round the World
(1712)
- Richard Steele, The Englishman, no. 26 (1-3 December 1713)
From Penelope Aubin, The Strange Adventures of the Count de
Vinevil and his Family (1721)
From Leendert Hasenbosch, An Authentic Relation of the Many
Hardships and Sufferings of a Dutch Sailor (1728)
Appendix D: Explorations of Solitude
From Richard Baxter, “Of Conversing with God in Solitude”
(1664)
From Mary, Lady Chudleigh, “Of Solitude” (1710)
From Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, “The
Petition for an Absolute Retreat” (1713)
From Daniel Defoe, “Of Solitude” (1720)
Alexander Pope, “Ode on Solitude” (1717)
From Edmund Burke, “Society and Solitude” (1757)
From Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emilius and Sophia (1762)
William Cowper, “Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander
Selkirk” (1782)
Charlotte Smith, Sonnet XLIV, “Written in the Church-yard at
Middleton in Sussex” (1789)
From Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancyent
Marinere” (1798)
William Wordsworth, “Nutting” (1800)
William Cowper, “The Castaway” (1803)
Appendix E: Economic Contexts
From John Locke, “Of Property,” Two Treatises on Government
(1698)
From Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations (1776)
From Karl Marx, Capital (1867)
From Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism (1920-21)
Appendix F: Defoe on Slavery and the African Trade
From Reformation of Manners, A Satire (1702)
From An Essay upon the Trade to Africa (1711)
From A Review of the State of the British Nation (1711,
1712)
From The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable
Col. Jacque, Commonly called Col. Jack (1722)
From A Plan of the English Commerce (1728)
Appendix G: Cannibalism
From Michel de Montaigne, “Of Cannibals” (tr. 1685-86)
From Charles de Rochefort, The History of the Caribby-Islands
(tr. 1666)
From William Dampier, “Of the Reports about Cannibals”
(1703)
From Daniel Defoe, Serious Reflections During the Life and
Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1720)
Appendix H: Illustrations of Friday’s Rescue
Anonymous (1720)
Anonymous (1722)
Clément Pierre Marillier (1787)
Charles Ansell (1790)
Thomas Stothard (1790)
George Cruikshank (1831)
J.J. Grandville (1840)
Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne) (1846)
Jules Fesquet (1877)
Otis Turner (1913)
Select Bibliography
About the Author
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) was a British novelist
and journalist.
Evan R. Davis is Elliott Associate Professor of
English at Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, Virginia.
Reviews
"Evan Davis has done an excellent job of bringing together many of
the strands of thought that Defoe put into The Life and Strange
Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe--his interests in travel,
economics, religion, and the experience of solitude--and putting
them into an attractive format." -- Maximillian E. Novak,
University of California at Los Angeles
