Robinson Crusoe

These adventures, so thrillingly imagined by Defoe, were first published in 1719 and Robinson Crusoe has continued to delight and enthral readers of all ages for three hundred years. This edition has been adapted for children and is masterfully illustrated by Hans Christian Andersen Award-winning artist Robert Ingpen.

Young and impulsive, Robinson Crusoe defies the advice of his parents and runs away to sea. He is plagued by misfortune at every turn; his first ship sinks in a violent storm, his friend and mentor dies, then he is captured by Turkish pirates and made a slave in the Moorish port of Sallee. Through all these hardships, Crusoe’s determination and resourcefulness fills him with hope for a better life, and fate delivers him the opportunity for freedom, friendship and riches. But it is when he is shipwrecked on a deserted island that he faces his greatest test: not simply to survive but to thrive. The island is filled with beauty and riches of its own kind and here Crusoe is king, but it is blighted by a terrible danger—a hidden horror—that threatens not only Crusoe’s encampment but his very life.