Robinson Crusoe, jr.

Robinson Crusoe Jr. is one of Oliver Optic’s many novels for boys, with the title referencing the classic Daniel Defoe novel about the castaway sailor stranded on a remote island. Optic uses the Robinson Crusoe reference to anchor a similar castaway and survival adventure plot for his young readers, with the standard moral and character development of the wider Optic catalogue framed within the survival adventure structure.

The Robinson Crusoe template was one of the most influential models in the wider tradition of boys’ adventure fiction, with many writers across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries producing variations on the basic castaway and survival framework. Optic’s contribution to this wider tradition operates at the children’s adventure level, with the standard moral lessons of his catalogue adapted to the survival setting.

For scholars of nineteenth century American children’s literature, of the Robinson Crusoe tradition in adventure fiction, or of the wider career of Oliver Optic, the various novels in his catalogue are essential. Many are now in the public domain.