y book can
ever be." The nineteenth century saw more than one hundred editions of
it published in London alone. It has been repeatedly issued in almost
every language of Europe. The secret of the success of _Robinson
Crusoe_ has puzzled hundreds of writers who have tried to imitate it.

The world-wide popularity of _Robinson Crusoe_ is chiefly due (1) to
the peculiar genius of the author; (2) to his journalistic training,
which enabled him to seize on the essential elements of interest and
to keep these in the foreground; (3) to the skill with which he
presents matter-of-fact details, sufficient to invest the story with
an atmosphere of perfect reality; (4) to his style, which is as simple
and direct as the speech of real life, and which is made vivid by
specific words describing concrete actions,--such as hewing a tree,
sharpening a stake, hanging up grapes to dry, tossing a biscuit to a
wild cat, taking a motherless kid in his arms; and (5) to the skill
with which he sets a problem requiring for its solution energy,
ingenuity, self-reliance, and the development of the moral power
necessary to meet and overcome difficulties.

Young and old follow with intense interest every movement of the
shipwrecked mariner when he first swims to the stranded ship,
constructs a raft, and places on it "bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses,
five pieces of dried goat's flesh, a little remainder of European
corn, and the carpenter's chest." Readers do not accompany him
passively as he lands the raft and returns. They work with him; they
are not only made a part of all Crusoe's experience, but they react on
it imaginatively; they suggest changes; they hold their breath or try
to assist him when he is in danger. Defoe's genius in making the
reader a partner in Robinson Crusoe's adventures has not yet received
sufficient appreciation. The author could never have secured such a
triumph if he had not compelled readers to take an active part in the
story.

It was for a long time thought that Defoe was ignorant, that he
accidentally happened to write _Robinson Crusoe_ because he had been
told of the recent experience of Alexander Selkirk on a solitary
island in the Pacific. It is now known that Defoe was well educated,
versed in several languages, and the most versatile writer of his
time. _Robinson Crusoe_ was no more of an accident than any other
creation of genius.

Defoe's other principal works of fiction are: _Memoirs of a Cavalier_,
the