DIY Homeschooler

Number three on Baldwin’s The Hundred Best Books for Children list found in The Book-lover is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe and published in the early 1700s. The story is set in the mid-1600s when a young man set sail on a ship without his parents’ permission. Of course he became shipwrecked and spent nearly 30 years reconsidering his error!

Yet this really is a classic adventure story with ingenuity, inventiveness, hard work, courage, and faith in God. Later Crusoe rescues Friday who becomes his companion. They experience many adventures before being finding their way home.

By the time Robinson Crusoe was written Defoe had had great practice in making the dreams of his own mind seem entirely real happenings, and taking as a groundwork of his book an experience of a shipwrecked sailor, Alexander Selkirk, he wrote a book out of his own head that is more real than almost any other man’s account of events he had actually experienced. In doing this Defoe not only told a tale we all like to read again and again, but he proved in the English tongue the superiority of plain, clear, simple writing. But behind this easy writing was one of the most imaginative minds.

“Dryden, Pope, Bunyan and Defoe,” The Book of Knowledge

The subtitle of the 1801 version reads:

THE LIFE AND MOST SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE, OF YORK, MARINER. WHO LIVED EIGHT AND TWENTY YEARS IN AN UNINHABITED ISLAND, ON THE COAST OF AMERICA, NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE GREAT RIVER OROONOQUE, Including an Account of HIS DELIVERANCE THENCE, AND HIS AFTER SURPRISING ADVENTURES. WITH HIS VISION OF THE ANGELIC WORLD.

The island-castaway theme has been repeated over and over. But Robinson Crusoe stands firm as the “original.”

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Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
This illustrated, unabridged version is a favorite.

Free eBooks

• Read online
• PDF
• Various formats (EPUB3, Kindle)

Robinson Crusoe Told to the Children by John Lang

Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable by Aiken
For the younger reader.

Robinson Crusoe
LibriVox audio.

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Additional Resources

10 Favorite Robinson Crusoe Books
The lost-on-a-deserted-island theme is popular around here. Other stories to enjoy!

“Pirate Story” by Robert Louis Stevenson
Enjoy this similar-themed poetry study.

Author Notebooking Pages {Free Download}
Use this free set to create an author notebook for our 100 Best Books for Children series.

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