Lost at Sea: Robinson Crusoe and the Art of Navigation

This article traces the connections between Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and the religious and practical navigational literatures (the "art of navigation") that flourished at the time the novel was published. The first two sections argue for how fluid the boundaries were between spiritual and physical navigation in the transatlantic eighteenth century through an explication of navigational print culture and an analysis of maritime-themed religious works. The final two sections show how this rich conception of navigation works in Defoe's novel. Crusoe uses a series of guides—textual (navigation books) and religious (Bible)—before finding Friday as the ultimate guide to aid with his spiritual and physical senses of lostness.