This classic story of a shipwrecked mariner on a deserted island is perhaps the greatest adventure in all of English literature. Fleeing from pirates， Robinson Crusoe is swept ashore in a storm possessing only a knife， a box of tobacco， a pipe-and the will to survive. His is the saga of a man alone： a man who overcomes self-pity and despair to reconstruct his life; who painstakingly teaches himself how to fashion a pot， bake bread， build a canoe; and who， after twenty-four agonizing years of solitude， discovers a human footprint in the sand... Consistently popular since its first publication in 1719， Daniel Defoe's story of human endurance in an exotic， faraway land exerts a timeless appeal. The first important English novel， Robinson Crusoe has taken its rightful place among the great myths of Western civilization.From the Paperback edition.