The Truth Behind the 'Real' Robinson Crusoe

Nearly 300 years ago, Daniel Defoe wrote a novel about the fictional Robinson Crusoe's adventures as a seafarer and castaway. Wildly imaginative and new at the time it was published, the novel prompted people to be curious about the inspiration behind the titular character.

According to a report from Spiegel, a Scotsman named Alexander Selkirk is widely recognized as "the real Robinson". Compared to the fictional character's 28 long years stranded in an island, his true-to-life counterpart merely spent just over four years on the Mas a Tierra island, which is part of the Juan Fernandez archipelago.

Although many people claim -- or at least believe -- that Robinson Crusoe is directly inspired by Selkirk, scholars disagree. In a report from National Geographic, Andrew Lambert, author of "Crusoe's Island", said that there isn't a single "real" Crusoe. Instead there are a lot of different ones.

Lambert described the famous novel as "a complex compound of all the other buccaneer survival stories."