ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -On February 1, 1709, Alexander Selkirk, the probable inspiration for novelist Daniel Defoe’s shipwrecked character Robinson Crusoe, was rescued after four years alone on a South Pacific island. Selkirk had been left by his privateering ship, fearing it needed major repairs in order to be seaworthy.

Detailed explanation-2: -Who inspired the character of Crusoe? Defoe’s novel was inspired by the story of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish seaman from Fife who had been marooned on the Pacific island of Juan Fernandez for four years and four months.

Detailed explanation-3: -Alexander Selkirk (1676 – 13 December 1721) was a Scottish privateer and Royal Navy officer who spent four years and four months as a castaway (1704–1709) after being marooned by his captain, initially at his request, on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean.

Detailed explanation-4: -Thought to be the basis for Robinson Crusoe, Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was no castaway. He had been willingly marooned on an island by his ship’s captain on the basis of mutual antipathy. Yet Selkirk’s story still resonates.

Detailed explanation-5: -Robinson Crusoe tells the ‘true story’, narrated retrospectively in the first person, of a young Englishman who, against the wishes of his parents, sets sail on a dangerous sea voyage. Daniel Defoe’s novel draws on contemporary travel narratives and tales of real-life castaways, such as Alexander Selkirk.