Author Series 9 - R L Stevenson

Author Series 9

R L Stevenson

* 1850-1894

* Born at Edinburgh, Scotland.

 

* Scottish novelist, poet & essayist.

 

* Works - 

°An Island Voyage(1878)

 - First published book.

 - Travalogue about a canoeing trip through France & Belgium in 1876.

 - Voyage undertaken with his friend Walter Grindlay Simpson.

 - A fundamentally Romantic work in style & tone, paints a picture of an delightful atmosphere in Europe in a more innocent time.

°Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes(1879)

  - Considered a pioneering classic of Outdoor Literature.

  - Recounts Stevenson's 12-day, 200-kilometre/120 miles solo hiking journey through the sparsely populated & impoverished areas of the Cévennes mountains in   south-central France in 1878.

  - The other principal character is Modestine, a stubborn, manipulative donkey he could never quite master.

  - One of the earliest accounts to present hiking and camping outdoors as a recreational activity.

  - Dedicated to his friend Sidney Colvin, an art historian and critic.

°Treasure Island(1882)

 - narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold."

 - originally serialised in the children's magazine 'Young Folks'(1881-82) as 'Treasure Island, or the mutiny of the Hispaniola' with pseudonym Captain George North.

 

 - Characters -

  1. Jim Hawkins

  2. Dr. David Livesey

  3. Long John Silver

   

 5 real life pirates mentioned - 

  1. William Kidd

  2. Blackbeard

  3. Edward England

  4. Howell Davis

  5. Bartholomew Davis

°The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde(1886)

 - Gothic novella.

 - A London legal practitioner named Gabriel John Utterson investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, & the evil Edward Hyde.

°Kidnapped(1886)

 - Historical romance.

 - set around real 18th-century Scottish events, notably the "Appin murder", which occurred in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. 

 - Many of the characters are real people, including one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart.

Catriona (1893)

 - sequel to Kidnapped.