Page "Daniel Defoe" Paragraph 40

Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe ( 1719 ) tells of a man's shipwreck on a deserted island and his subsequent adventures.

The author based part of his narrative on the story of the Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk, who spent four years stranded on the island of Juan Fernandez.

He 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.