Penguin English Library Regarded as the first English novel, Robinson Crusoe is a work that goes to the heart of human existence. Told through the journal of Crusoe, the sole survivor of a shipwreck, it chronicles his daily battle to stay alive on a desert island, where his greatest struggle is with solitude — until a single footprint appears in the sand. Vividly depicting an individual"s psychological development from terrified survivor to master of man and nature, Defoe created one of the most enduring, universal myths in literature.