Desert island Autodidactus" inspired Robert Boyle, an acquaintance of Pococke, to write his own philosophical novel set on a deserted island, "The Aspiring Naturalist". Ibn al-Nafis' "Theologus Autodidactus" was also eventually translated into English in the early 20th century. Published in 1719, Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" about a castaway on a desert island has spawned so many imitations in film, television and radio that its name was used to define a genre, Robinsonade. The novel features Man Friday, Crusoe's personal assistant. It is likely that Defoe took inspiration for Crusoe from a Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk, who was rescued in
Despair (novel) violence between the Nazis and Communists. It would not be long before the Nazi party would come into prominence and Hitler appointed as chancellor. This would only fuel Nabokov's hatred for totalitarian governments, and this disdain was incorporated somewhat into "Despair" (Hermann is pro-Communist) and more prominently later on in "Invitation to a Beheading" (1936), Nabokov's next novel. In 1935, Nabokov began to become increasingly intrigued with the English language and elected to translate his two most recently written novels at the time, "Laughter in the Dark" (1932) (first translated as "Camera Obscura") and "Despair". Nabokov remarked that translating "Despair"