back to Robinson Crusoe, Introduction

Robinson Crusoe Visualised
A Genealogy of the 18th-Century Illustrations

vol. 1 frontispiece

p.2

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vol. 2 frontispiece

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vol. 3 frontispiece

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (London: W. Taylor, 1719). [vol. 1, 1st edition]   The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; being the Second and last Part of his Life (London: W. Taylor, 1719) [vol. 2, 1st edition]   Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (London: W. Taylor, 1720). [vol. 3, 1st edition]

vol. 1, 6th edition (London: W. Taylor, 1722).   vol.2, 4th edition London: W. Taylor, 1722

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe [...] The whole three volumes faithfully abridged (London: E. Midwinter/ A. Bettesworth/ J. Brotherton/ W. Meadows/ M. Hotham, 1722).   1st ed. without frontispiece — 2nd ed. 1724 — 3rd ed. 1726 — influenced numerous editions throughout the century

La vie et les avantures surprenantes de Robinson Crusoe [...] trad. de l’Anglois. 3.ed. (Amsterdam: Chatelain pt.1: 1727/ pt.2: 1726).

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The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe [...] The ninth edition (Birmingham: printed by J. Sketchley, auctioner, &c., [1765?]).

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe [...] Faithfully epitomized (Edinburgh: printed for, and sold by Alex McCaslan, 1768).

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe [...] The fourteenth edition (London: printed for J. Browne, 1779).

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. In two volumes. By Daniel Defoe (London: printed for Harrison and Co., 1781).

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe [...] (London: printed at the Logographic Press, and sold by J. Walter, 1785).   reprinted 1790 with the baptism (vol.2, p.173) as new frontispiece to vol. 2 and Crusoe on shore (vol. 1, p.52) now as frontispiece to vol. 3.

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe [...] In two volumes (London: printed for W. Lane, 1790).

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. By Daniel De Foe. Cooke’s edition (London: printed for C. Cooke, [1793]).

The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, vols. 1-2 (Manchester: printed by W.M. Shelmerdine and Co., 1799-1800).

The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe [...] The twenty-sixth edition (Liverpool: printeed [sic] by J. Nuttall, for Lackington Allen and Co. and W. Baynes, London; J. Hemingway, Blackburn; W. Bibby, Chorley, 1800).

Note: The British Library's copy of the "tenth edition" with the meagre imprint information "LONDON Printed in the Year, M,DCC,LXX." an abridged version bringing the original three volumes into one, ESTC T072309 (see → ECCO reproduction) is equipped with images of the Lane-edition published in 1790 and with three landscapes which again reappear in other editions published during the next decades. I have excluded both being unable to determine where the landscapes first appeared. Two of them are printed with page references to the edition, one of them does, however, refer to quite another page - possibly one that was correct in an earlier context.

The whole spreadsheet remains inconclusive. I have excluded editions which just copied older plates and cuts though these copies hardly ever failed to bring slight changes into the pictures.

A more comprehensive page would, more important, include the continental images.

The images of Joachim Heinrich Campe's The New Robinson Crusoe; an instructive and entertaining history, for the use of children of both sexes. Translated from the French affected the tradition at the end of the century. They can, however, not be placed congruently into the pattern since they transcend the original Crusonian world with such useful inventions as Lamas employed to carry materials.

Click at the images for large scale reproductions.

Olaf Simons