I have choosen to talk about the famous novel named Robinson Crusoe because this novel is to my mind ( and as we mentioned it in class) the original model for Voyage and Return Stories.

Robinson Crusoe is an adventure novel by Daniel Defoe and published on 25 april 1719. The full title of the novel is The life and the strange and surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe.

Robinson Crusoe is a fictional character created by Daniel Defoe. He was born in York in England in 1632. But he leaved York in 1651 to navigate against the wishes of his parents. His ship was arrested by the pirates Sallee Rovers and Crusoe became a slave of a Moors. He succeed to escape thanks to a portuguese ship.

In 1659, he joins an expedition in search of African slaves. But in the wake of a storm he is wrecked in an island near the mouth of the Orinoco river. He is the only survivor. In his new life, he builds, cultivates, manufactures, read the Bible but he also raises goats. Only the company of men missing.

The island is named « Despair Island » and it receives the visit of cannibals who come to kill and eat their prisoners. Crusoe wants to exterminate them but they don’t know that their acts are criminals. He dreams of having one or two servants. One of them succeed to escape to the prison. Crusoe and him become friends and he decides to name his new friend « Friday ». He teaches to him English and converts to Christianity.

28 years after, an English ship arrives and a timer just burst; the rebels aim to abandon the captain in this Island. But the captain and Crusoe manage to take back the ship and return in England with Friday who stay a devoted servant. He becomes rich thanks to his plantation, then he travels in France and finally he returns in England.