'Robinson Crusoe,' published in 1719, is considered by many to be the first novel in English, and it success was so enormous that by the end of the nineteenth century it had spawned more translations and versions that any other previous English book. An everyman character who has become part of our cultural heritage, Defoe's castaway - shipwrecked, imperilled and facing a host of elemental challenges - lives an archetypal life of survival, adventure and personal development.