Widely acknowledged as the first English novel Daniel Defoe's adventure story of a shipwrecked sailor became an instant classic upon its publication in 1719 and the yardstick for countless castaway narratives to follow. Robinson Crusoe is more than a great yarn it is an allegory rife with moral and religious symbolism and significance seen through the eyes of an ordinary man struggling to survive in extraordinary circumstances
The book is a kind of epic of human endeavour ceaselessly striving after some fresh comfort or betterment. Opinions differ as to the sincerity of the religious psychology; there can be no doubt as to the truth of the touches which indicate the desire for companionship.