What is the significance of the title page of Robinson Crusoe?

There are
several significant points about the title page. The first significant point is that the author
presents this fictional story as a personal autobiography, written
byhimself.

Secondly, the author gives the reader
a short summary of what they're about to read right in the title page. The great
part about this is that the topic and the genre of the book, and who the lead character is, are
clear from the very start. The author also uses descriptive words about the story and the work,
drawing the reader in.

The title page of Robinson Crusoe says the
following:

The Life and Strange Surprizing
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner:

Who
Lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near
the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque;

Having been
Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself.

With an Account how he was at last as strangely deliverd by Pyrates.

Written by Himself. 

London: Printed for W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row.

Who is the lead character? Robinson Crusoe. Where is he from? York,
Mariner. What happened to him? He lived all alone in an uninhabited island for 28 years. Where
was the island? On the coast of America, near the Oroonoque river. How did he get there? He was
shipwrecked and no one else survived. How did he finally get away from the island? By
pirates.

The title page gives us all of this information and further presents
that this account is narrated by the lead character himself. This is a great example of a
literary summary. It tells us all that we need to know to understand the story and it also gives
us an idea of whether this is a story that we will enjoy.

href="http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/defoe/crusoe_images.html">http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/defoe/crusoe_images.html