The Shipwrecked Mr. Crusoe

Sep 30, 2025

11:48

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Literature’s most famous castaway, Robinson Crusoe, was washed up on a desert island - where he would remain for 28 years - on 30th September, 1659.

By selecting this date, author Daniel Defoe ensured that his fictional protagonist’s fate pre-dated the real-life estrangement of Royal Navy man Alexander Selkirk, who was stranded some 46 years later: 14 years prior to Defoe writing his novel.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how his story pioneered not only the English novel, but also the movie trailer; ask whether Crusoe’s narrative voice sounds like an authentic young man of the period, or betrays the fact that Defoe was nearly sixty when he created him; and dig around in the writer’s early career (including, but not limited to, creating perfume from civets)...