Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Including a Memoir of the Author, and an Essay on His Writings

Chicago, Illinois: Belford, Clarke & Co. / Donohue & Henneberry, 1884. Reissue. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. Undated reissue. Ink gift note on front flyleaf dated 1884, spine leans forward slightly, boards faintly soiled. xvi, 472 pp. Red-orange cloth, black titles and decorations, gilt title panels, floral decorated endpapers, black-and-white engraved frontispiece and plates. First published in 1719, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is commonly considered as the first novel in English. Based on the real-life experience of Alexander Selkirk, who spent four years on a Pacific island, it is the account of the 28-year stay of an English sailor on a nearly uninhabited island near America. Actually, Robinson Crusoe has to share the island with cannibals. He eventually manages to save some of their victims, one of them becoming his servant under the name Man Friday.