Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was inspired by the story of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who went to sea in 1704.

Defoe may have interviewed Selkirk so he built a new  story, adding his imagination, his experiences, and his knowledge in order to create something new.

Robinson Crusoe is the main character of the novel. He was the youngest son of a merchant from the town of York. At the age of nineteen, he decided to leave his family searching for adventures and to make his own fortune. 
His first voyage lead him to Guinea and then back to England. His second voyage was a disaster ; he was imprisoned by the Moors and he was enslaved in the town of Sallee.

After two years of slavery, during a fishing expedition, he broke free and sailed to the African coast , where he was rescued by a Portuguese captain and he was taken in Brazil. Here he become a plantation owner .

Years later, he joined an expedition to bring slaves from Africa but he was shipwrecked in a storm near the mouth of the Orinoco river on 30 September 1659. His companions all die and three animals survived ;the the captain's dog and two cats. After twelve years of solitude, he found a human footprint and he discovered native cannibals who occasionally visited the island to kill and eat prisoners. Than he met  a young men called Friday. Friday become Robinson's devoted servant.

Crusoe remained on the desert island for 28 years. Then, another ship of savages arrived with three prisoners. Crusoe and Friday saved two of them. One was a Spaniard; the other was Friday's father. Finally Crusoe was rescued and brought back to England, where he discovered that his plantation had made him rich.