Structure

Title

Daniel Defoe's novel is named after the main character of the tale, Robinson Crusoe, and depicts his life and adventures. After three sea voyages, the shipwrecked main character survives secluded for 28 years on a Caribbean island thanks to his courage, cleverness, and diligence before a ship brings him back to England.

The title was originally very long: The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pirates. Written by Himself. In those days, it was common for the title to take up almost the entire space of the book cover and to describe the plot very precisely.

The author, Daniel Defoe, wanted to make it seem as if Robinson Crusoe had written the book himself after his return home, although both the story and the character are fictiona...