Books

Amsterdam: Chez L'Honoré & Chatelain, 1720. First edition thus. Very good plus.. First printing of the first French edition of ROBINSON CRUSOE, one of the first ever translations of the book that has more translations than any work except the Bible. ROBINSON CRUSOE's reputation as one of the most famous books in the world began immediately after publication with the printing of French, German, and Dutch translations in 1720. This edition is prized not only as the earliest French translation, but also for its illustrations: it is the first edition to be illustrated with more than a frontispiece and maps. It contains 6 fine copperplate engravings, as well as a wonderful frontispiece portrait of Crusoe by the renowned engraver Bernard Picart, and the highly sought folding map by Hermann Moll (which didn't appear until the fourth edition in English). This is volume one (as in English, the book was not published all at once). Two more volumes of the later parts of ROBINSON CRUSOE…

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, is one of the earliest and most influential novels in the history of English literature. It is a fictional autobiography of the title character, a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued. The story is widely perceived as a comment on the British Imperialism of the age and the emerging ideology of the 'self-made man', and it reflects on the author's vast array of experiences.

The first edition of Robinson Crusoe was published without Defoe's name on it, and is titled 'The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventure of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates.' Identification is typically through comparison with known first edition features (typeset, errors, page count, publisher details, etc).