ABSTRACT
In total, the motifs that Krasicki would have taken from Robinson Crusoe include storm and shipwreck, initial despair on the beach and fear of wilderness, re-entering the wreck, using a cave as a store, rescue from a Spanish ship and imprisonment by a slave trader sailing to Brazil. The appearance of Robinson Crusoe and the Robinsonade in Poland was a multifaceted literary event, which involved the king’s close circle of literary associates and some of the most influential figures in the literary sphere. The early reception of Robinson Crusoe on Polish soil exemplifies the general tendencies in the afterlife of English fiction in Enlightenment Poland. Admittedly, Robinson Crusoe in the 1760s was read as belonging and contributing to both variants, given the adventurous element, on the one hand, and the commentary on a state of nature. As such, the advertisement joins Albertrandi’s preface in the attempt to distinguish Robinson Crusoe from the romance by virtue of its educational potential.
