Description

Hardcover, original red cloth stamped in black with mounted horseman, sailing ship, etc. 398pp., First [of 2] fronticpiece lacking, illustrated with 10 plates and two folding maps. Facsimile title of 1729 edition present, as is 1890 title-page. Originally published in 1729 this edition is actually the second edition, published as a title in the Unwin Adventure Series. First printing thus. Purported to be a primary source for Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’, there has been continuing debate about whether this popular tale describing survival in eighteenth-century Madagascar was truth or fiction. Capt. Oliver, in his introduction is one who looks askance at the full veracity of Drury’s tale, though admits that the man existed. Emile Blanchard in 1872 and Captain Pasfield Oliver in 1890 both argued that Robert Drury’s Journal was probably written by Defoe. Included in this edition is an essay further describing Madagascar, by the Abbe Alexis Rochon. Book condition: covers age soiled and spine daekened, albeit gold lettering still quite readable. Initial dozen or so leaves foxed, largely confined to margins. Several pages roughly opened, and several in appendix remain uncut. A sound, tightly bound copy, text generally clean and unfoxed. A solid, good copy.