Robinson Crusoe  appeared in April, 1719 and was the first novel to appear in English. It is a fictional autobiography that tells the story of an English plantation owner in Brazil who is shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of South America near the Orinoco River and marooned on an island for 28 years. He manages to salvage tools and supplies sufficient to build a dwelling and slowly becomes religious as he reads the Bible. He encounters native cannibals that visit the island for sacrificial rituals and manages to free and adopt one of the captives as a companion, dubbed Friday for the day of the week of the event. He and Friday eventually defeat the natives, and Crusoe returns to England by way of Portugal and Spain.

Robinson Crusoe was based in part on a memoir by Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish seaman who had been marooned for a number of years. The first edition named Robinson Crusoe as its author, which led readers to believe it was a true story. Defoe used the plot as a framework and added fantastic and humorous events that give the story much of its appeal. Told in a straightforward journalistic style laced with wit and irony, it dug deep into the mind of the character, which was highly original at the time. The book became an instant hit, going through four editions in the first year, and has remained a bestseller ever since. and has become one of the most widely published books in history, spawning numerous sequels and adaptations for stage, film, and television.