There are quite a lot of reasons to explain the relationship between the eighteenth Century and the novel becaming so popular. One of the most obvious, of course if we can date it and see it in retrospective is that Robinson Crusoe is, quite honesly, a very exciting story, even for todays so we can considerate it a classic of World literature. It captured the hearts and minds of the time and still does. We can think about it and identify the following main social , cultural and historical legacy on it:
The novel is based on a real-life setting. It is based on Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who got stranded on his own desert island off the coast of Chile for four very long years. Robinson Crusoe deals with many of the Big Issues on the minds of people in 18th-century England.
The issue of religion, is as we can see in the novel always present. The novel is basically a story where the main character starts off as the typical prodigal son and soonafter finds himself struggling against the will of God. His journal on the island set thhe way for his spiritual awakening, atonement, and eventual conversion to Christianity. Eighteenth-century readers would have been quite familiar with many Biblical characters showing similarities with Crusoe such as Jonah, or Job. The other big influence seen in the novel reflects the impact of Philosophy. Robinson Crusoe engages with many of the top debates of the epoch.
The philosophical tought of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were already settling in the European continent by that time, coining the term we know today as the social contract – that is, man's relationship to the society he lives in. Because this novel is about a man living alone in the wilderness who forms his own little society, Robinson Crusoe is very much a part of this larger philosophical conversation.
The novel puts great emphasis on the fact that Crusoe's family is staunchly middle class – something Crusoe at first resists. The middle class (including such folks as merchants and traders) was just emerging in 18th-century England. In other words, we can deduce that this book became also very popular among the readers sharing middle-class values and beliefs.
The role of commerce and imperial expansion of the British Empire. We can notice that Crusoe is always taking stock of what he's trading and with whom. so we can relate the fact that England was just beginning to expand its trade networks and swap goods all over the world in places like India, Africa, and the Americas. As commercial capitalism boomed, people in England were fascinated by these new exotic goods and the places from which they came. They were also very interested in the people from these different cultures.