English

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.

The Time Machine was published in 1895 and quickly established Wells not only as an able writer, but a thinker of unusual ideas. Wells is perhaps the original writer of science fiction (alongside Jules Verne) and this novel is characteristic of his use of technology, imagination, and clever plotting to make the unthinkable seem plausible to the ordinary reader.

First published in 1914, this romantic novel has remained influential over the years, both as a book and in films and a television series. The reader must recognize that Tarzan is a product of its age and contains outmoded imagery and simplistic depictions of other cultures and species: bloodthirsty natives, chatty chimps, roaring lions, stalking beasts. In some respects Tarzan is a caricature of itself and life in an African jungle.