Literature Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the field an answer needs. A question sitting between two disciplines appears under both, which is why the group counts add up to more than the number of questions.
Showing 21 to 22 of 22 open questions, page 2 of 2.
Not Yet Classified 22
Robinson Crusoe
Was Robinson Crusoe based specifically on Alexander Selkirk, or on a composite of several real castaways' accounts?
Open Robinson Crusoe
Why It Is Open Defoe never named a source. Alexander Selkirk's widely publicized 1709 rescue is the real-life account most often cited as the model, but historian Andrew Lambert and others argue this single-source reading is a false premise, since the novel differs from Selkirk's own story in concrete ways: Crusoe is shipwrecked rather than self-marooned, and his island is already inhabited rather than solitary.
What Would Settle It A surviving Defoe letter, manuscript note, or contemporary account naming his source or sources directly; no such document is currently known.
Expertise Needed Literary history and eighteenth-century book history
Question posed in
Robinson Crusoe (Wikipedia), Background section, on the single-source versus composite-source debate.
Adventure Fiction
Where and when did adventure fiction originate as a genre?
Open Adventure Fiction
Why It Is Open The atlas's own live Wikipedia source names adventure as a theme common since the earliest days of written fiction and references ancient examples such as Heliodorus, but states no single place, era or literary tradition credited with originating adventure fiction as a genre; a specific origin point could not be attested from the source consulted (checked twice, 2026-09-13).
What Would Settle It A literary-history source that names a specific work, era or tradition as adventure fiction's point of origin, distinct from merely early instances of adventure as a story theme.
Question posed in
Adventure fiction (Wikipedia), History section, searched twice, no origin-place stated.