THE LIFE AND SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE OF YORK MARINER WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT OF DEFOE 1835 Gilt Edge Adventure Literature Shipwreck Island Engraved Illustrations William Harvey

Title: The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: With a Biographical Account of Defoe
Author: Uncredited
Publisher: Harper & Brothers
City: New York
Year: 1835
Binding Style: Hardcover
Pagination: 469 pages
Width: 4.75" Height: 7.5"
Book Details: This antique volume is bound in textured blue cloth with full-edge gilt and decorative marbled endpapers. “Illustrated with fifty characteristic cuts, from drawings by William Harvey, Esq. And engraved by Adams.†A tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of Daniel DeFoe enhances the text.

Daniel Defoe (c1660 – 24 April 1731), born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, which is second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts and often was in trouble with the authorities, including a spell in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted with him. Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works—books, pamphlets, and journals—on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of business journalism and economic journalism.

This novel relates the story of a man's shipwreck on a desert island for twenty-eight years and his subsequent adventures. Throughout its episodic narrative, Crusoe's struggles with faith are apparent as he bargains with God in times of life-threatening crises, but time and again he turns his back after his deliverances. He is finally content with his lot in life, separated from society, following a more genuine conversion experience. Usually read as fiction, a coincidence of background geography suggests that this may be non-fiction. The novel has been assumed to be based in part on the story of the Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk, who spent four years stranded in the Juan Fernández Islands, but this experience is inconsistent with the details of the narrative. The island Selkirk lived on was named Más a Tierra (Closer to Land) at the time and was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966. It has been supposed that Defoe may have also been inspired by the Latin or English translation of a book by the Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath Ibn Tufail, who was known as "Abubacer" in Europe. The Latin edition of the book was entitled Philosophus Autodidactus and it was an earlier novel that is also set on a deserted island.
Condition / Notes: This volume displays some typical indications of age and wear, including shelfwear and rubbing. The front hinge is cracked, and the spine is missing. The text block is cracked, however the pages are intact, although the preliminary pages are loose. Text and illustrations are clear and crisp through mild age toning/foxing. There is writing by previous owners to the endpapers and title page, and illustrations are pasted to the front free endpaper and page five. A small blurb is affixed to the front pastedown, and another newspaper clipping to the rear endpapers.

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