'It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore…'

Thus Defoe describes the heart-stopping moment when - after years of solitude - the world's most famous shipwrecked mariner discovers that he is not totally alone on his island.
From its publication in 1719, and through many translations, Robinson Crusoe has been hailed as the classic adventure story. Although the inspiration came from a real-life castaway called Alexander Selkirk, the novel can be enjoyed as a tale of survival, of spiritual awakening, or as a mythic quest.