Books

London: Printed for W. Taylor, 1719. Hardcover. Good. Small 8vo. Two volumes in uniform contemporary calf, raised spine bands, red leather spine labels with gilt title. Speckled edges. [iv], [1 folding map], 364, [4 pp. ads]; [viii], 348, [4 pp. ads]. Book 1 has famous engraved frontispiece portrait of Crusoe by Clark & Pine; book 2 lacks frontis (appears to have been present but removed per remaining stub) and map. Woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, and t.p. vignettes. Covers rubbed, wear to leather. Cracking to joints, chipping to spine ends (worse to book 2), wear to corners. Cracking to hinges. A few instances of browning, rust staining, ink smudging, pencil notation, but text blocks are otherwise remarkably clean. Some small spots of worming to publisher's list at rear of book 1. Some printing errors to and per catchwords in book 1 (pp. 23, 65, 82, 113, 178). One inch tear to outer margin and ink smudge to New Holland (Australia) to map. Publisher's adverts at rear of both…

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.