Detail and consider the features of the novel that you believe are most central to the form. Your answer should be about “Robinson Crusoe”. The central features of a novel are essential to keeping the story alive and engaging the reader. A pervasive illusion of reality, individualized and believable characters and a plausible plot are the most central main characteristics of the novel form (Taormina, 2005). All three of these things are evident in Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. In the early 18th century, when Robinson Crusoe was written, there were no fixed rules to follow regarding the form of the novel. Critics have long debated the authorship of the first novel, with Ian Watt stating that in fact "Robinson Crusoe is certainly the first novel in the sense that it is the first fictional account in which the everyday activities of an ordinary person are at the center of continued literary attention. » (1965, 74). Others, such as Peter Childs, take a different view and claim that "this can be considered the first realistic novel, and its beginning is a useful example of the genre's characteristics" (2001). To create an illusion of reality throughout the novel Defoe uses different narrative techniques such as epistolary and the use of lists. An example of this is Defoe interweaving Crusoe's personal diary entries into the story. Written by him during his time on the island, they help give the reader an idea of ​​what he was feeling and what he was thinking. This style is typical of early 18th century novels « early 18th century... middle of paper ...... Heitman, Danny. Fiction as authentic as reality. The Wall Street Journal. January 2013. (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323936804578227971298012486) London, April. The Cambridge Introduction to the Eighteenth-Century Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. McCrum, Robert. The 100 best novels. The Guardian. September 2013. (http://www.theguardian.com/books/poll/2013/sep/30/100-best-books-robinson-crusoe)Taormina, Agatha. Novels. 2005(http://www.nvcc.edu/home/ataormina/novels/history/define.htm)Van Gand, Dorothy. The English novel: Form and function. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. Verschoyle, Derek. English novelists: a survey of the novel by twenty contemporary novelists. London: Chatto & Windus, 1936. Watt, Ian P. The rise of the novel: studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. London: Chatto and Windus, 1957