was adopted by Defoe.  But it is not the fact or the adventures which give power to Robinson Crusoe.  It is the manner of treating what might occur to any fancy, even the dullest.  The charm consists in the simplicity and the verisimilitude of the narrative, the rare adaptation of the common man to his circumstances, his projects and failures, the birth of religion in his soul, his conflicting hopes and fears, his occasional despair.  We see in him a brother, and a suffering one.  We live his life on the island; we share his terrible fear at the discovery of the footprint, his courage in destroying the cannibal savages and rescuing the victim.  Where is there in fiction another man Friday?  From the beginning of his misfortunes until he is again sailing for England, after nearly thirty years of captivity, he holds us spellbound by the reality, the simplicity, and the pathos of his narrative; but, far beyond the temporary illusion of the modern novel, everything remains real:  the shipwrecked mariner spins his yarns in sailor fashion, and we believe and feel every word he says.  The book, although wonderfully good throughout, is unequal:  the prime interest only lasts until he is rescued, and ends with his embarkation for England.  The remainder of his travels becomes, as a narrative, comparatively tiresome and tame; and we feel, besides, that, after his unrivalled experience, he should have remained in England, “the observed of all observers.”  Yet it must be said that we are indebted to his later journey in Spain and France, his adventures in the Eastern Seas, his caravan ride overland from China to Europe, for much which illustrates the manners and customs of navigation and travel in that day.

Robinson Crusoe stands alone among English books, a perennial fountain of instruction and pleasure.  It aids in educating each new generation:  children read it for its incident; men to renew their youth; literary scholars to discover what it teaches of its time and of its author’s genius.  Its influence continues unabated; it incites boys to maritime adventure, and shows them how to use in emergency whatever they find at hand.  It does more:  it tends to reclaim the erring by its simple homilies; it illustrates the ruder navigation of its day; shows us the habits and morals of the merchant marine, and the need and means of reforming what was so very bad.

Defoe’s style is clear, simple, and natural.  He wrote several other works, of which few are now read.  Among these are the Account of the Plague, The Life and Piracies of Captain Singleton, and The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders.  He died on the 24th of April, 1731.