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) Dostoevsky's writing, with its excessive soul-searching and glorification of criminals and prostitutes and this is reflected in "Despair" and Hermann, who carries certain similarities to Raskolnikov, who had also planned a perfect murder in "Crime and Punishment". Additionally, the book is rich in intertextual connections to other authors such as Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Oscar Wilde, and Conan Doyle. "Despair" is generally acclaimed as one of Nabokov's better Russian novels, along with "Invitation to a Beheading" and "The Gift" (1938), and has a reasonable volume of literary criticism. British author Martin Amis ranked it second on his list of best Nabokov