The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

(1719)  Crusoe sets sail on a sea voyage against the wishes of his parents, who want him to pursue a career.  Crusoe is shipwrecked in a storm and is swept ashore possessing only a knife, a box of tobacco, a pipe-and the will to survive. His is the saga of a man alone: a man who overcomes self-pity and despair to reconstruct his life; who painstakingly teaches himself how to fashion a pot, bake bread, build a canoe; and who, after twenty-four agonizing years of solitude, discovers a human footprint in the sand...