The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner
Daniel De Foe
Paperback
(Forgotten Books, July 12, 2012)
Robinson Crusoe in 1719, under ... the following quaint title :T he Life and Strange Surly prising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: who lived eight-and-twenty years all alone in an uninhabited island on the coast of A merica, near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque; having been cast on shore by shipwreck, wherein all the men perished but himself. With an account how he was at last strangely delivered by Pirates. Written by himself. Like Paradise Lost, this romance, destined to so immediate and lasting a popularity, is said to have been offered to the whole circle of the trade before any publisher could be found willing to incur the risk of producing it. I ts success however was so gi eat that four editions were printed in as many months. It appeared, in the first instance, with the following preface :I fever the story of any private mans adventures in the world were worth making public, and were acceptable when published, the Editor of this account thinks this will be so. The wonders of this mans life exceed all that (he thinks) is to be found extant; the life of one man being scarce capable of a greater variety. The story is told with modesty, with seriousness, and with a religious application of events to the uses to which wise men always apply them ;viz.. to the instruction of others, by this example, and to justify and honor the wisdom of Providence in all the variety of circumstances, let them happen how they will. The Editor believes the thing to be a just history of fact; neither is there any appearance of fiction in it: and however thinks, because all such things are dispfited, that the improvement of it, as well to the diversion as to the instruction of the reader, will be the same; and as such, he thinks, without farther compliment to the world, he does tliem a great service in the publication. The great success of the first par(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)