Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894), was a Scottish novel­ist, essayist, and poet who became one of the world's most popular writers. His exciting adventure stories «Treasure Island» and «Kid­napped» have long appealed to both children and adults. His essays and travel books are considered models of sophisticated English prose style, while the tender, simple poems collected in «А Child's Garden of Verses» arc masterpieces of children's literature.

Stevenson's life was as varied and fascinating as his work. He fought illness constantly, writing many of his best books from a sickbed. He traveled widely for his health and to learn about people. He spent his last years on the South Sea island of Samoa, and the Samoans honored him with the title «Tusitala» (Teller of Tales).

Stevenson's life

Early life. Stevenson was bom on Nov. 13,1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His full name was Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson. He later adopted the name Robert Louis Stevenson. He was a sickly boy who suffered from a lung disease that later developed into tu­berculosis. Young Stevenson loved the open air, the sea, and ad­venture, but he also loved to read. He preferred literature and his­tory, especially Scottish history which supplied the background for many of his novels.

When he was 17, Stevenson entered Edinburgh University to study engineering, his father's profession. However, he soon gave up engineering for law. He passed his bar examination in 1875, but he did not enjoy law and never practiced it. His real love was writ­ing.

Stevenson began publishing short stories and essays in the mid- 1870's. His first book, «An Inland Voyage», appeared in 1878. It relates his experiences during a canoeing trip through France and Belgium. In «Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes» (1879), Stevenson describes a walking tour tlirough part of France. Although both books reveal Stevenson's inexperience as a writer, they gave signs of the graceful, charming essay style for which he was to become famous.

Marriage. In 1876, Stevenson met Mrs. Fanny Osboume, a married American woman who was studying art in Paris. Although

she was 11 years older than Stevenson and had a son and daughter, Stevenson fell in love with her. In 1879, he followed her to San Francisco in spite of the opposition of his parents. They were mar­ried in Oakland in 1880, after her divorce. The long journey from Europe to California severely affected Stevenson's frail health. To speed his recovery, he moved his family to a rough mining camp in the mountains near St. Helena, Calif. Stevenson described his ex­periences there in «The Silverado Squatters» (1883).

The Stevensons returned to Scotland in 1880. For the next seven years, they moved through Europe from one resort to another, hop­ing that a change of air would improve Stevenson's health. In 1887, Stevenson returned with his family to the United States, where he entered a sanitarium at Saranac Lake, N.Y.

The South Seas. For Stevenson, the sea had always been brac­ing. When his health improved, he boldly decided to sail a yacht to the South Seas. He left San Francisco with his wife, widowed mother, and stepson in June 1888, and for the next six years trav­eled through the South Sea islands. He came to know the life of the islanders better than any writer of his time.

Eventually, Stevenson decided to settle in the South Seas, the one place that seemed to promise some lasting improvement in his health. He bought some forest land near Apia, Samoa, and built a large house, which he called «Vailima» (Five Rivers). He became a planter and took an active part in island affairs. Stevenson's kind­ness, understanding, and tolerance gained the affection of the Sa- moans, who built a road to his house which they called «The Road of the Loving Heart».

Tragedy clouded Stevenson's last years when his wife suffered a nervous breakdown. This misfortune moved him deeply, affect­ing his ability to complete his last books. Stevenson's life was be­ginning to brighten when his wife partially recovered, but he died suddenly of a stroke on Dec. 3, 1894. Local chiefs buried him on top of Mount Vaea, where his gravestone is inscribed with his own poem «Requiem». Its concluding lines make a fitting epitaph for a gallant adventurer:

Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter, home from the hill.

Stevenson's writings

Novels. In 1881, Stevenson amused his stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, with a little tale about pirates and the buried treasure of Captain Kidd. It grew into «Treasure Island», Stevenson's first and most famous novel. The story, first published in a boy's magazine, was revised for book publication in 1883. The boy hero Jim Hawkins, the two villains Long John Silver and blind Pew, and the hairraising search for the buried treasure have become familiar to millions of readers.

With the publication of Stevenson's second major novel, «The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde» (1886), his reputation was assured. The story tells of a doctor who takes a drug that changes him into a new person, physically ugly and spiritually evil. As a psychological inquiry into the nature of the evil that exists in all people, the novel brilliantly anticipates much modern psychologi­cal fiction and is one of the most fascinating horror stories ever written.

Stevenson also published «Kidnapped», his best long novel, in 1886. Based on considerable historical research, it weaves an exciting fictional story around an actual Scottish murder commit­ted in 1745. The novel displays Stevenson's matchless ability to create adult entertainment out of the materials of children's ad­venture stories. Because of its length, Stevenson ended «Kid­napped» before the plot was completed. He finally finished the story in 1893 with a sequel, «David Balfour» (published in En­gland as «Catriona»).

«The Master of Ballantrac» (1889), is set against the background of Scotland's revolt against England in the I740's. The novel tells a story of bitter hatred between two brothers. «The Master of Ballantrae» begins as a promising psychological study, but suffers from its melodramatic ending.

Stevenson's later novels, far different from his early light-hearted romances, arc often bitter in tone. Less popular, they still have merit. The short novel «The Beach of Falesa» (1892), which Stevenson described as «the first realistic South Sea story», was called «art brought to a perfection» by novelist Henry James.

Stevenson wrote three other novels, in collaboration with Lloyd Osbourne — «The Wrong Box» (1889), «The Wrecker» (1892), and «The Ebb Tide» (1894). Stevenson also left two novels unfin­ished at his death. «St. Ives», which was completed by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, describes the adventures of a French prisoner in Britain in 1813. «Weir of Hermiston», a story of Scotland in the 1700's, promised to be Stevenson's finest novel.

Other writings. Stevenson wrote many short stories, some of which were collected into «New Arabian Nights» (1882), and «More New Arabian Nights» (1885). Many of the stories are rich in imagi­nation and fantasy, although the early ones are often written in an artificial style.

Stevenson's concern with prose style is most apparent in his essays, which arc among the finest in the language. His observa­tions on people and manners are marked by a delicate fancy. For charm and perceptiveness, they can be compared only to the essays of Charles Lamb and William Hazlitt. Stevenson's most memo­rable essays were collected in «Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers» (1881), «Familiar Studies of Men and Books» (1882), and «Memories and Portraits» (1887).

Stevenson wrote several travel books later in his career. The «Amateur Emigrant» (1880,1895), describes his voyages to the United States; «Across the Plains» (1892), tells of his trip from New York to San Francisco; «In the South Seas» (1890), contains his reflections on his Pacific voyages. All demonstrate Stevenson's extraordinary stylistic quality — the sudden word or phrase that lights a page with meaning.

In addition to the works mentioned above, Stevenson composed some delightful letters, wrote several volumes of poetry, and col­laborated with William Ernest Henley on some unsuccessful dra­mas. «А Child's Garden of Verses» (1885), reveals the world of a child's imagination with a deceptive simplicity that still holds ap­peal for readers young and old. Stevenson's adult poetry, however, is almost totally ignored today, in spite of occasional picces of con­siderable merit.

Stevenson's place in literature

Stevenson was both the most popular and the most successful among writers of the late 1800's who developed romance as a reac­tion to the literary movements of realism and naturalism. If his influence has declined today, it is not necessarily because modem writers are more skillful, but rather that Stevenson's optimistic view of life has become unfashionable.

Stevenson insisted that novels are to adults what play is to chil­dren, and that one of the legitimate and necessary functions of lit­erature is to supply adventure for people who lead unexciting lives. A theory of fiction seemingly so limited and naive might well have produced literary trifles. In fact, it resulted in art of such high qual­ity that the disciplined Henry James once praised Stevenson as «the only man in England who can write a decent English sentence».

Stevenson's faults arc obvious. His plots are a bit melodramatic, his pirates rather stagy, and, as he readily admitted, his heroines entirely unreal. But his sure handling of narrative pace, his strong sense of atmosphere, and above all his masterly command of style give his novels and stories enduring vitality.

The reading public has never lost its admiration for Stevenson, and it appears likely that as long as there is a taste for romance written with artistry, he will continue to have an audience. Further­more, there are signs that critics arc reevaluating his works, finding more fine shades of meaning in his writings than they had sus­pected.