Literature Network » Daniel Defoe

Three Novels: Obsession and the Nature of Writing

Content courtesy of

From: The Washington Post
Date: 19870308
Author:Russell Banks

FOE By J.M. Coetzee Viking. 153 pp. $15.95

THIS PROFOUND and brilliant novel purports to be the "true" version of the story told in Daniel Defoe's The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner ("Written by Himself", as the original title page has it). J.M. Coetzee's novel, his fifth, his best and, perhaps, in its own way, as much a masterpiece as Defoe's, pretends to have been written by an Englishwoman, Susan Barton, who was not mentioned in Defoe's novel. It comes to us mainly in the form of notes and letters addressed not to a Gentle Reader, but to the ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Daniel Defoe

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.