BRITISH NOVELISTS;

WITH AN

ESSAY, AND PREFACES

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL,

BY

MRS. BARBAULD.

A New Edition.

VOL. XVI.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON; W. LOWNDES; SCATCHERD
AND LETTERMAN; J. NUNN; J. CUTHELL; JEFFERY AND SON;
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME AND CO.; T. WILKIE; CADELL
AND DAVIES; J. AND W. T. CLARKE; J. OTRIDGE; LACKINGTON
AND CO., S. BAGSTER; J. MURRAY; J. BOOKER; J. BLACK;
BLACK AND CO.; J. RICHARDSON; J. M. RICHARDSON; R. SCHO-
LEY; J. MAWMAN; R. H. EVANS; A. K. NEWMAN AND CO.;
J. ASPERNE; J. CARPENTER; J. BOOTH; W. GINGER; BALDWIN,
CRADOCK AND JOY; T. HODGSON; J. BOHN; J. EBERS; SHER-
WOOD, NEELY AND JONES; G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER; SETCH-
ELL AND SON; WHITMORE AND FENN; R. HUNTER; G. COWIE
AND CO.; R. SAUNDERS; T. AND J. ALLMAN; T. BOONE; C.
BROWN; J. BRUMBY; EDWARDS AND CO.; T. HAMILTON; J.
LEPARD; G. MACKIE; W. MASON; J. MILLER; OGLE, DUNCAN
AND CO. RODWELL AND MARTIN; HURST, ROBINSON AND CO.;
WILSON AND SONS, YORK; STERLING AND SLADE; AND FAIR-
BAIRN AND ANDERSON, EDINBURGH.

4 DLC 19

LI

C. Baldwin, Printer, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, London.

THE LIFE

AND

SURPRISING ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE,

OF YORK, MARINER:

WHO LIVED EIGHT-AND-TWENTY YEARS,

ALL ALONE,

ON AN UNINHABITED ISLAND,

NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE GREAT RIVER OROONOQUE.

WITH AN

ACCOUNT OF HIS TRAVELS

ROUND THREE PARTS OF THE GLOBE.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

DE FOE.

THE first publication which appears in this selection has so little the air of a common novel, that many will probably be surprised to see it included under that denomination; and some, who consider their old friend Robinson Crusoe as a mere school-boy acquaintance, may wonder to see him in such good company as the Sir Charleses and the Lady Betties of fashionable life. But the truth is, this favourite of our early years, though it has no pretensions to the graces of style, nor aims at touching the tender passions, yields to few in the truth of its description and its power of interesting the mind. Its author, DANIEL DE FOE, is a name well known in the political history of his age. He was born in London in 1663; his father was a butcher; his education was a common one, and none of his works bear any marks of that polish and elegance of style which is the mingled result of a classical education, and of associating with the more cultivated orders of society: but he was a man of truly original genius, and possessed in a remarkable degree the power of giving such an air of truth and nature to his narrations that VOL. XVI.

a