What made Robinson Crusoe popular in the days it was published?

The novel
by , which was first published in 1719, tells of an English sailor who
becomes a castaway on a deserted island and survives there for 28 years until he is finally
rescued. The book became instantly popular and went through four editions by the end of 1719.
There are several reasons why Robinson Crusoe became so popular in the days
after it was first published.

First of all, it was an
anomaly in the publishing world of the time. In 1719, the novel was not an established genre of
literature. The real author, Defoe, was not credited in the first edition. Many readers thought
that it was a true story and that Robinson Crusoe, an actual person, was the author. Defoe had
based his novel on the accounts of real sailors who had been shipwrecked, and the book'sthrilled
readers. Defoe was almost sixty years old when Robinson Crusoe was
published, and he had spent much of his career as a journalist. He was adept at depicting the
details of events in a way his readers would find interesting.

In the novel, Crusoe is presented as a common man that many readers of the era could
relate to. They could see themselves in Crusoe, and they could sympathize with the fears, joys,
and moral dilemmas that he goes through in the course of his struggles for survival. One of the
main things that Crusoe uses to cope with his solitude and despair is the Bible, and 18th
century readers could identify with that as well. His attitude of thankfulness to God helps him
endure his harsh circumstances and have mercy on his companion Friday, who he rescues from
cannibals and converts to Christianity. This would fit in with attitudes toward religion that
readers of the era would have held.

Some scholars also
suggest that Robinson Crusoe's tale of survival is an example of the hero's journey, a term made
popular by author Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand
Faces. Although readers in the 18th century would probably not have consciously made
this connection, they would have been unconsciously affected by this universal mythical
theme.

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