Crusoe: some Critical Receptions

Though always popular with the reading public, Defoe has received ambivalent reactions from many critics and scholars.
Robinson Crusoe was an instant success with the public but by certain critics was considered un-Christian and attacked for its improbabilities and misconceptions concerning life at sea.

Criticism of Defoe's work during the eighteenth century focused on its authenticity and moral implications.

Twentieth-century critics generally agree that Defoe has been seriously undervalued as an artist. They debate how best to interpret Robinson Crusoe, on whether or not—or to what degree—it is allegorical, whether its chief focus should be on its adventure or Puritan themes, and what Defoe's exact message is on moral values, economics, and security.
There is also disagreement on whether or not to accept Defoe's own explanation of Robinson Crusoe with His Vision of the Angelick World, in which Defoe explains the book as an allegory of his own life.

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