Robinson Crusoe was one of the first English novels as well as one of the world's most popular adventure stories. It was first published by William Taylor in 1719.

Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe as a pastime and relaxation when he was nearly sixty years old. It was based on the actual experiences of Alexander Selkirk who had gone out in 1705 under Captain William Dampier on a private expedition. He was to seize and plunder enemy ships but he quarrelled with his Captain and was marooned on the island of Juan Fernandez off the coast of South America. Here he remained suffering terrors of solitude until Dampier took him back in 1709. Robinson Crusoe's experiences are based on Selkirk's imagined thoughts and feelings.

The book became very popular and has remained so even today because the details of Crusoe's adventures are so exact and circumstantial and are written with such an air of truth that the readers flow along with the tale.