After the publication of Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe, the name from the book's title quickly became a household name. Robinson began to be called anyone who, on his own initiative or by the will of fate, found himself away from people.
Sometimes the adventures of the most famous non-fictional Robinsons turn out to be even more interesting than the stories about hermits described in books.
Alexander Selkirk - prototype of Robinson Crusoe
When writing the novel Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe used the memoirs of the Scot Alexander Selkirk. The story of the unlucky traveler is indeed similar to the events described in the novel, but there are still a number of significant differences.As a boatswain of a pirate ship, Selkirk fell out of favor with the captain in May 1704. The consequences of the quarrel were the landing of the sailor on the deserted island of Mas a Tierra, which is located in the Pacific Ocean, and where they had not even heard of friend Friday. Despite the difficult living conditions, Alexander was able to achieve some success during his stay on the island.
For example, taming wild goats. It was in the company of these horned animals that English ships found him in 1709, and already in 1712 Selkirk managed to return home. The editors of the site recall that Defoe's stay on the island was 28 years.
Traveler Daniel Foss
The skin and meat of the seal were able to save another hero of the “Robinsonade” - the American traveler Daniel Foss, whose cruise on the ship “Negotiant” ended in a collision with a huge iceberg. He was the only passenger on the ship who managed to escape, swimming to the rocky island in 1809. 
This piece of land was deserted, and there was nothing here except a seal rookery. What helped the hero survive was an ordinary wooden oar, which was washed ashore on the island by the waves. The hero waved it like a flag when, 5 years later, he was seen from a passing ship. Moreover, Daniel got to it by swimming, since the captain was afraid to land the ship on the rocky bottom.
Volunteer Robinson - Tom Neal
History also knows about voluntary Robinsons. The coral island of Suvorov sheltered Tom Neil in 1957. Unlike his predecessors, the hermit hero had everything he needed with him: food, hygiene products, pets and even fuel. 
In addition, the island was rich in its tropical gifts. When, after 3 years, Tom’s stay in paradise was disrupted by the Americans, he didn’t even want to hear anything about the human world. Nevertheless, in 1966, Tom made a short foray into civilization to publish his memoirs and earn money.
He returned to the island with the book “An Island for Yourself.” His inspiration lasted for another 10 years, after which Tom Neil left an uninhabited piece of land and went to live out his life in his native New Zealand.
The magic of Defoe's book
It is unknown to what extent Daniel Defoe's book was involved in the shipwreck of the schooner "Beautiful Bliss" in 1911, but it is certain that it helped Jeremy Beebs survive. A 14-year-old teenager was able to escape on a piece of land in the Pacific Ocean. 
He gained his knowledge of calendaring, hunting and primitive architecture from a book about Robinson Crusoe, and fresh fruits and coconut milk helped him maintain his health until old age. It was only in 1985, at the age of 88, that he found himself on a randomly passing German ship.
The story about the famous hermit from the book by Daniel Defoe was reflected in cinema. In 2000, the film Cast Away, starring Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, was released.
Alexey Khimkov - Russian "Robinson"
Under the leadership of helmsman Alexei Khimkov, the merchant ship set off to fish in 1743. While searching for walruses near the island of Spitsbergen, the ship got stuck in the Arctic ice. A team of several hunters, led by the captain himself, went to land, where they discovered a hut. They took few supplies, as they planned to return to the ship the next day. However, fate decreed otherwise: overnight, the ice and the wind carried the ship into the open sea, where it soon sank. 
Khimkov had no choice but to insulate the discovered building for the winter. The rifle cartridges did not last long, but with the help of handy items the brave team made homemade bows and spears. This was enough to hunt deer and bears. The island was also rich in small game and fish, and salt was extracted directly from sea water.
Unfortunately, it was not hunger or cold that awaited them, but ordinary scurvy. Due to a lack of vital vitamins, one of the four died five years later. Another year and a half passed before, in the summer of 1749, a passing ship led by Commander Kornilov noticed wild Robinsons.
News of the surviving hunters eventually reached Count Shuvalov himself, who was listed at the royal court. It was he who commissioned the French citizen Le Roy to write a book about the misadventures of Khimkov entitled “The Adventures of Four Russian Sailors Brought to the Island of Spitsbergen by a Storm,” which was subsequently published in several languages in different countries of the world. We invite you to learn the stories of the most famous travelers.
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My perception of D. Defoe’s novel “Robinson Crusoe”
This year we read a lot of interesting books in class. Most of all I liked books about adventures, travel, and pirates. D. Defoe's book "Robinson Crusoe" is about a sea voyage. Robinson Crusoe himself was a sailor. He really wanted to travel around the world, but his parents did not let him. And then he ran away from home and became a sailor on a ship. A variety of adventures happened to him. He was captured and was a slave, then he escaped from captivity, became rich and began to trade various goods himself. But I especially liked how Robinson lived in an uninhabited
island. One day the ship he was sailing on crashed during a strong storm. Everyone died except Robinson Crusoe. But he knew how to swim well and was not at a loss. He caught on a log and was able to swim to shore. There was no one on the island where Robinson ended up. He found no people, only wild animals. But Robinson definitely wanted
to stay alive, and when he woke up in the morning in a tree, he decided to take everything that was left there from the ship. He took various tools to build a house, clothes and needles, food that did not disappear in the sea water. And when Robinson brought everything on a raft to his island, he began to settle down there. Robinson only lacked a few things on the island. He really wanted to smoke, and soon he was able to find wild tobacco, from which he made his own cigarettes. The worst thing was for him without people and bread. But the bread
Robinson managed to grow wheat from grains that he found on a sunken ship. Robinson was very bored without people. He had no one to talk to, no one to complain to. So he wrote down his thoughts in a diary until the ink and paper ran out, and he also tamed a parrot and taught it to say “poor Robin Crusoe.” Robinson was very happy when he met Friday. The cannibals wanted to eat Friday, but Robinson Crusoe saved him and taught him to speak English. Robinson and Friday became friends. Now the island had everything Robinson wanted, but he really missed home and his family. And after many years he was able to return home to England. In England, he told everyone about his journey and life on a desert island, but they didn’t really believe him. I liked Robinson Crusoe. He is very smart and can do a lot. He built his own house, cooked food, sewed clothes, even tamed wild animals, although he was an ordinary merchant. He even managed to make a boat and sailed it around the island. Robinson always knew what things could be useful to him. And, if some ship crashed near his island, he took out everything he needed from there. He worked hard and really wanted to come home, so he was lucky. I believe that if you want to achieve something in life, you need to work hard and dream, then you will succeed, like Robinson.
There are probably not many books in the world that almost everyone has read. One of the first places on the list of such books is Daniel Defoe's immortal novel "The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe." This novel is always (or almost always) read in early childhood. And what is always remembered in early childhood is the part of the book that begins with a shipwreck - when the main character ends up on a desert island. Then the young reader cannot stop reading the pages that describe Robinson's many and many years of adventures on the island. And the child's attention ends at the moment when the main character is saved on a ship that accidentally entered the bay. Young readers will forever remember the phrase: “So I left the island on December 19, 1686, according to the ship’s calendar, having stayed on it for twenty-eight years, two months and eighteen days...”
However, some aspects of the book remain beyond the reader's attention: they are too much for children. adults, and adult readers, as a rule, if they re-read a book, then only the part that was interesting in childhood.
Already on the first page of the novel, the main character reports the following about himself: “Since I was the third in the family, I was not prepared for any craft, and from a young age my head was filled with all sorts of nonsense. My father ... gave me a pretty tolerable education to the extent that it can be obtained by being raised at home and attending a city school. He intended me to become a lawyer, but I dreamed of sea voyages...” The father was rightly against his son’s “vagrant inclinations.” A lengthy educational conversation between the father and his young son led nowhere. He told his mother the following: “... I am eighteen years old, and in these years it is too late to learn a trade, too late to prepare to become a lawyer. And even if I became a scribe to a solicitor, I know in advance that I will run away from my patron before the probation period , and I'll go to sea."
Let us remind the reader that for a long time in England it was possible to become a lawyer without graduating from law school. Back in the first half of the 19th century, Charles Dickens worked as a scribe in two law firms, hoping for some time to break into the public through jurisprudence. And Dickens began working as a scribe for a lawyer at the age of 13. This is why Robinson Crusoe believed that at the age of 18 it was already “too late to prepare to become a lawyer”!
In the photo: the prototype of Robinson Crusoe Alexander Selkirk, who, having sailed on the ship "Sank Port" to the shores of South America in 1704, constantly came into conflict with the captain of the ship and was the last to land on an uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean, at that time called Isla M á s a Tierra (meaning "closest island to land"), and which is now called Isla Robins on Crusoe ("Robinson Crusoe Island"). Selkirk stayed on the island for 4 years and 4 months, after which in 1709 he returned to his hometown of Largo.
These seemingly insignificant facts from Robinson’s life are very important for assessing the no less amazing (than life on the island) events that happened in his life after his miraculous rescue.
In the photo: a still from the film "Robinson Crusoe", 2003.
Let us remember that Robinson Crusoe was absent from England for 35 years. Let's take a break from the plot of the story and imagine the following situation: a citizen of Ukraine, the owner of a significant fortune or, as they say now, a profitable business, disappears from the country for 35 years. What will happen to his profitable business? This is understandable without question in a country where a business often becomes the property of another person without any consent of the owner. But Crusoe was lucky. He fell out of business for 35 years in another time and in another country. This is what happened to his "assets".
Money
The trusted lady to whom Crusoe left money for safekeeping was alive, but “had experienced great adversity and her affairs were very bad.” Crusoe, who returned after many years of absence, did not demand the debt from her, but, on the contrary, helped her with a small amount.
Inheritance
Crusoe's father and mother died, two sisters and two children of one of the brothers had long considered him dead and therefore left him nothing of the inheritance.
Business
Crusoe had one last chance to provide himself with a decent life. From London he went to Lisbon to try to find out about the fate of his plantation in Brazil and about his business partner. In Lisbon, he met an old captain of a Portuguese ship, who told him that 9 years ago the companion was still alive, and the two attorneys whom Crusoe had assigned to oversee his share had died. Can we forget about business? But no! The captain believed that Crusoe could obtain the most accurate (!) information about his plantation and the improvements made on it, because, in view of the general belief that Crusoe was missing and drowned, the guardians appointed by him annually reported on the income of the plantation to an official of the state treasury . At the same time, the official decided: if Crusoe does not return, his property should be confiscated and one-third of the income from it should be transferred to the treasury, and two-thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine for the poor and for the conversion of Indians to Catholicism.
Another interesting legal detail. In a conversation with the captain, it turns out that Crusoe managed to draw up a will in favor of the captain before going to sea. Imagine: the captain, having learned about Crusoe’s disappearance, was in no hurry to take over the rights of inheritance. Although he presented documents confirming his rights to inheritance. The old captain nevertheless received a certain portion of the income from the plantation and with this money became a co-owner of a merchant ship. Right during the same conversation, he not only admitted this, but also, as compensation, gave Crusoe a very impressive sum and a receipt stating that Crusoe has the rights to this share in the ship. Crusoe, however, refused this share.
And now - the fun part! This is how a subject of the British Crown, while in Portugal, 350 years ago received his share of the income from business in Brazil. The old captain, in whose favor the will was drawn up, entered Crusoe's name in the official books of the merchant ship, which was supposed to sail to Brazil. The captain also certified by oath that Robinson Crusoe was alive and that he was the same person who originally acquired the land in order to establish a plantation on it. Then Crusoe drew up a power of attorney at a notary for a merchant he knew in Brazil. Believe it or not, not only was the power of attorney accepted in Brazil, but just seven months later Crusoe received from the heirs of his attorneys a large package containing documents of exceptional importance.
The package, firstly, contained a statement of profits for six years, starting from the year in which the fathers of the attorneys settled with his friend the captain. Second, an account of another four years, during which the attorneys independently managed Crusoe's affairs until the government took custody of the plantation as the property of a missing person (then called a "civil death"). Thirdly, the package contained a report from the abbot of the Augustinian monastery, who had received income for more than fourteen years.
With the same ships, Crusoe's attorneys transferred to him the income from the plantation for the current year: one thousand two hundred boxes of granulated sugar, eight hundred packs of tobacco, the rest in gold. We emphasize that this is only for one year.
The package also contained a letter from Crusoe's companion. You won’t believe it: he cordially congratulated him on his return, told him how their joint estate had now grown and how much it produces annually, how many acres it now has, what the plantation is sown with and how many slaves work on it. Next, the companion warmly (!) begged Crusoe to return to Brazil and take possession of his property, but for now give him instructions on how to dispose of it if Crusoe does not come.
Still, it’s interesting how a book that is now considered children’s (but was written at one time for adults) describes not only how property rights were protected 350 years ago, but also how one could return one’s property after many years of absence. And not only property, but also the fruits and benefits from it.
To appreciate the content of the last 20 pages of this outstanding novel, just imagine the following: you are a citizen of Ukraine and, for personal reasons, left and stayed, say, in the United States for 10 years. Before leaving for another country, you were a co-owner of an income-generating business in Ukraine. And now you want to return to your homeland again and take advantage of the fruits and benefits of your property located in Ukraine. Funny, is not it? To make things easier, let's assume you were only gone for 2 years. And it’s funny too...
Sergey Kozyakov, member of the Academic Council of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Extracurricular event on literature for grades 3-4 “Robinson Crusoe” - a true story or a writer’s invention?
— How do you think all these proper names are related to each other? (Children's answers.)
Yes, right. Chile is a country in South America. Robinson Crusoe is the hero of the novel of the same name by the English writer Daniel Defoe. But today you are about to find out who Alexander Selkirk is. Another very interesting fact should be noted: it is Chile that owns two islands with very unusual names: Alexander Selkirk and Robinson Crusoe.
On April 25, 1719, an amazing book appeared in England. It was written by Daniel Defoe, a man whose life was full of adventures. He was the owner of a trading company, engaged in risky commercial transactions, and was also a writer, whom fans showered with flowers and the authorities pilloried (such a punishment existed in England). Defoe was sentenced to prison, from which he managed to free himself only by becoming a secret agent of the English government. He is the author of many works. His collected works contain 14 volumes. These are the novels “The Story of Colonel Jack”, “Roxanne”, “Captain Singleton”, but the most famous is the novel about the adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
Do you know the full title of this novel? I'm sure not, because it's very difficult to remember. The book was called:
“The life, extraordinary and amazing adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a sailor from York, who lived twenty-eight years all alone on an uninhabited island, off the coast of America near the mouth of the great Orinoco River, where he was thrown by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew of the ship, except him, died, with an account of his unexpected release by pirates.
Written by himself."
If you haven't read this book yet, be sure to read it, you won't regret it!
It is about a sailor who spent 28 years on a deserted island. The ship on which Robinson Crusoe was sailing ran aground near an uninhabited island. The entire crew of the ship, who tried to escape on the boat, died, and only one Robinson was thrown ashore by a wave. The next day, during low tide, he swam to the ship, from where he took out chests of food, guns, a huge amount of clothing, bedding, and also a carpenter's box with all the working tools. This helped him survive on the island.
The first book about Robinson Crusoe is widely known, although in fact there are three of them. The second is called “The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,” and the third is “The Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe.”
Why is the Chilean island named after Robinson Crusoe? Is this a tribute to your favorite literary character or person? Who is Robinson Crusoe - a literary hero or a real person? I wonder if Robinson Crusoe really existed?
It turns out that there was. The fact is that this novel is based on a real story that happened to the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk. In life, however, everything happened somewhat differently. Selkirk quarreled with the captain of the ship on which he served, for which the captain landed Selkirk on the uninhabited island of Mas a Tiera. This island is part of a group of islands called Juan Fernandez and is located 560 km off the coast of Chile. It was on this island that Alexander Selkirk lived a lot of time (though not 28, as in the novel, but 4 years and 4 months).
The book “The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” became so popular that since then, Robinson began to be called any person who found himself in a place where there are no people, no food - in a word, no conditions for a normal human life. This book caused many imitations - it was after this that a huge number of books about Robinsons were written. But, of course, no one else has written such a book as The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.