Based loosely on the true story of the real-life sailor Alexander Selkirk, Defoe's classic tale of human strength and survival in the face of a hostile and lonely world can be understood on many different levels. Defoe is a figure for all times, either alone as he is literally stripped bare to confront the basic elements of life, or with “his man” Friday, who joins Crusoe after 26 years of solitariness. Defoe's work is both suitable and meaningful for readers of all ages. Whether you read this book as a simple tale of adventure and survival, or as an expression of the conflict between civilization and barbarism, “this book has attained a high place in the literature of the world, and justly so”.
