Reception

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) became a bestseller as soon as it was published and is still the third most printed book in world literature after the Bible and the Quran.

The first edition of the book was already sold out in less than three weeks after its publication. The second edition was sold out after four weeks. Four more weeks later, the third edition is published and after two more months, the fourth edition appears.

A year after its publication, the first German translation was published in 1720. The work was then reprinted worldwide in more or less heavily edited versions in countless other languages. In the course of the following three centuries, the story of the lonely castaway was repeatedly modernized and retold. In total, more than ...