Restless and headstrong, young Robinson Crusoe defies his father's wish for a safe and settled life and runs off to sea in search of adventure. Fortune carries him through storms, captivity, and hard-won prosperity, until a voyage gone wrong leaves his ship broken apart by a violent storm and Crusoe the sole survivor, washed up alone on a remote and uninhabited tropical island. With nothing but what he can salvage from the wreck and his own wits, he must learn to feed, shelter, and keep himself alive. Defoe's pioneering 1719 novel strands one ordinary man at the very edge of the known world.