Summary:
Robinson Crusoe, is a young and impulsive wanderer from the town of York, who goes against his parents wishes for him to study law, and instead chooses a life of adventure at sea. After being involved in a series of violent storms whilst at  sea he is advised by the captain that he shouldn’t be a seafaring man. Ashamed to return home, Crusoe boards another ship on a voyage that takes him to Africa. This time round his adventure is a fortunate one, he returns to England several hundred pounds richer. Soon after Crusoe departs yet again on another voyage, but  this time he is not so lucky and bad luck catches up with him. His ship is boarded and captured by Moorish pirates,  he is sold into slavery and taken to Sallee. Whilst in the service of a potentate as a slave, he is sent out in a boat to fish. Crusoe exploits this rare opportunity to his advantage and is able to escape, together with a young boy slave.

He is  then rescued by a Portuguese ship and thus a new adventure begins. He eventualy lands in Brazil, and  after some time, he becomes the owner of a sugar plantation. Hoping to increase his wealth by buying slaves, he associates himself with other plantation owners and undertakes a trip to Africa in order to procure further slave labour. After surviving a storm, Crusoe and the others are shipwrecked. He is washed up ashore of the coasts of Trinidad, only to discover that he is the sole survivor of the wreck.

Crusoe immediatly seeks for food and shelter, after which he discoveres the wreck of the ship and makes numerous trips to it, to salvage muskets, gun powder food and any other item useful for his survival on the deserted island. As time goes by he begins to develop talents that he never knew to have possed so as to provide himself with necessities. Cut off from the company of other humans, he begins to communicate with God, thus beginning the first part of his religious conversion. To keep his sanity and to entertain himself, he begins to keep a diary. In this diary, he writes down each task he performs ever since being marooned on the dessert island.

As time passes, Crusoe becomes an ever more skilled craftsman, able to construct many useful things, and therefore provides himself with many diverse comforts. He also learnes about farming, owing to some seeds which he brought with him. An illness promptes a prophetic dream, and Crusoe begins to reappraise his duty to God. Crusoe explores his island and discovereds another part of the island which is much richer and more fertile. Therefore he constructs a summer home there.

One of the first tasks he undertakes is to build himself a canoe in case an escape may be necessary, but the canoe is too heavy to drag to the water. He then constructed a small boat and journeyed around the island. Crusoe reflected on his earlier, wicked life, disobeying his parents, and wondered if it might be related to his isolation on this island.

After spending about fifteen years on the island, Crusoe found a man’s naked footprint, and he was sorely beset by apprehensions, which kept him awake many nights. He considered many possibilities to account for the footprint and he began to take extra precautions against a possible intruder. Sometime later, Crusoe was horrified to find human bones scattered about the shore, evidently the remains of a savage feast. He was plagued again with new fears. He explored the nature of cannibalism and debated his right to interfere with the customs of another race.

Crusoe was cautious for several years, but encountered nothing more to alarm him. He found a cave, which he used as a storage room, and in December of the same year, he spied cannibals sitting around a campfire. He did not see them again for quite some time.

Later, Crusoe saw a ship in distress, but everyone was already drowned on the ship and Crusoe remained companionless. However, he was able to take many provisions from this newly wrecked ship. Sometime later, cannibals landed on the island and a victim escaped. Crusoe saved his life, named him Friday, and taught him English. Friday soon became Crusoe’s humble and devoted slave.

Crusoe and Friday made plans to leave the island and, accordingly, they built another boat. Crusoe also undertook Friday’s religious education, converting the savage into a Protestant. Their voyage was postponed due to the return of the savages. This time it was necessary to attack the cannibals in order to save two prisoners since one was a white man. The white man was a Spaniard and the other was Friday’s father. Later the four of them planned a voyage to the mainland to rescue sixteen compatriots of the Spaniard. First, however, they built up their food supply to assure enough food for the extra people. Crusoe and Friday agreed to wait on the island while the Spaniard and Friday’s father brought back the other men.

A week later, they spied a ship but they quickly learned that there had been a mutiny on board. By devious means, Crusoe and Friday rescued the captain and two other men, and after much scheming, regained control of the ship. The grateful captain gave Crusoe many gifts and took him and Friday back to England. Some of the rebel crewmen were left marooned on the island.

Crusoe eventualy returnes to England and finds that in his absence he has become a wealthy man. After going to Lisbon to handle some of his affairs, Crusoe begins an overland journey back to England. Crusoe and his company encounter many hardships in crossing the mountains, but they finally arrived safely in England. Crusoe sells his plantation in Brazil for a good price, gets married and has three children. Finally, however, he is persuaded to go on yet another voyage, and he visits his old island, where there are promises of new adventures to be found in a later account.