Timeline of Events in Robinson Crusoe
Crusoe recounts his life story beginning with his birth and subsequent adventures, devoting the majority of the narrative to his time spent shipwrecked upon the island. The events that unfold in the novel, therefore, are all past occurrences recounted in Crusoe's present day. Because the novel's events are nested in this manner, and because some events are given more narrative time and space in the novel itself, a timeline is helpful to grasp the timeframe of events recounted in the novel.I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull; he got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterward at York; from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called, nay, we call ourselves, and write our name, Crusoe; and so my companions always called me.
There is no dynamic, digital timeline that currently exists to provide a chronological snapshot of events in Crusoe's life, so I created this timeline to be used as a pedagogical supplement to the novel.