Rebilius Cruso

Rebilius Cruso relates the story of a mans shipwreck on a desert island for twenty-eight years and his subsequent adventures. Throughout its episodic narrative Crusoes struggles with faith are apparent as he bargains with God in times of life-threatening crises but time and again he turns his back after his deliverances. He is finally content with his lot in life separated from society following a more genuine conversion experience. The novel has been assumed to be based in part on the story of the Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk who spent four years stranded in the Juan Fernández Islands but his experience is inconsistent with the details of the narrative. The island Selkirk lived on Más a Tierra (Closer to Land) was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966. It has been supposed that Defoe may have also been inspired by a translation of a book by the Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath Ibn Tufail who was known as Abubacer in Europe. The Latin edition was entitled Philosophus Autodidactus;[29][30][31][32] Simon Ockley published an English translation in 1708 entitled The improvement of human reason exhibited in the life of Hai ebn Yokdhan.