Book description
It is January 1719 and Daniel Defoe, almost sixty, sits at a table,
writing. He is troubled with gout and debt, but for now is preoccupied
with a younger man on a barren shore - Robinson Crusoe, for which he
will principally be remembered.
Several miles south, an old man, Robert Knox, is bent over a heavy
volume. It is Historical Relation, his account of being held
captive on Ceylon, published forty years ago after he escaped and
returned to England. It has long been out of print, but a copy perhaps
sits on the desk of Daniel Defoe as he writes.
Where did Crusoe come from? And what is the secret of his endurance?
Crusoe explores the intertwined lives of two real men - Daniel
Defoe and Robert Knox - and the character and book that emerged from
their peculiar conjunction. It is the biography of a book and its
hero, the story of Defoe, the man who wrote Robinson Crusoe,
and of Robert Knox, the man who was Crusoe.
Born and educated in America, Katherine Frank is the author of
several acclaimed biographies - of Lucie Duff Gordon, Emily Bronte, Mary
Kingsley and Indira Gandhi. She lives in England.
