The discipline of Translation Studies can contribute valuable data to the reception history of foreign literature. This is illustrated here through the study of translations, adaptations and imitations of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in Romanian culture. The study first surveys the different images of the book and its hero as presented to Romanian readers throughout more than one and a half centuries of reception. Second, it examines the borderlines between “translations proper” and “adaptations”. Third, it attempts to bridge the gap that separates translations and adaptations from “imitations”. All these kinds of texts relate to a source to different extents and ensure the survival of literary works abroad in different ways.