It won that year's Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française.
In 1971 Tournier rewrote the book, adapting it for younger readers, under the title Friday and Robinson: Life on Speranza Island[2] (French: Vendredi ou la Vie sauvage).
The young Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked on a desert island that he names Speranza (Hope).
Crusoe tries to civilize and control the nature of the island, but is redeemed by the appearance of an "Araucanian" whom he names Friday.
One review of Friday and Robinson, by Kirkus Reviews, described it as possibly attracting "young people" interested in philosophical debate, and that the "condensed form" makes the story easier to digest though that it also "places some limitations on Tournier's flights of profundity".