Weekly Classics Discussions

R.L Stevenson

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant."
- R.L Stevenson 

Robert Louis Stevenson, the only son of the civil engineer Thomas Stevenson and his wife  Margaret Isabella Balfour, was born on 13 November 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

He attended school since he was seven, but his attendance was quite irregular owing to his poor health and because his father doubted the value of formal education. At a young age of 17, he entered the Edinburgh University, where he was expected to the prepare himself for becoming a lighthouse engineer just like his father. During his time at the university, a young Stevenson was preparing himself to be a writer by imitating the styles of authors William Hazlitt and Daniel Defoe. A constant traveler for most of his adult life, he based his first two books, An Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), on his excursions in France. 

Stevenson suffered from respiratory diseases throughout his life. In 1881, he was accompanied by his wife and stepson Lloyd Osbourne to Switzerland, on medical life. There, in spite of bouts of illness, Stevenson embarked on Treasure Island (1882), which went on to become a great children's classic tale of  gripping adventure and a satire on the of human motives.
The threat of cholera drove the Stevensons back to Britain. Despite his bouts of dangerous illness in the South of England, he went on to revise A Child's Garden (first published in 1885) and wrote Kidnapped (1886) and  Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ( 1886). It was Dr. Jekyll, both moral allegory and thriller, that established his reputation with the ordinary readers. On December 3, 1894, at age 44, Stevenson died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He left unfinished Weir of Hermiston, which promised to be his single greatest work. 

Stevenson's letters ( later edited by Sidney Colvin in 1899) provide a vivid and a captivating picture of the man and his life. Stevenson's biography suffered from his being early canonized. Stevenson's literary reputation fluctuated throughout. The reaction against him set in soon after his death. He was considered a pretentious and unimaginative essayist or only a writer of children's books. But eventually tables turned and by the 1950s his reputation was established among the judicious as a writer of originality. In 1960s, his works were considered in depth and finally taken seriously by the academic community. Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde continue to be widely read over a century after they were first published, and show promise of remaining popular for centuries to come.

Discussion Question 

R.L Stevenson has left an indelible mark in the history of fictions. Which work by Stevenson has attracted you the most and stayed with you ? 

According to you, what is the most notable thing about the works of R.L Stevenson ? 

Always open to additional comments and discussions on R.L Stevenson and his works. 

If there is another author you would like to see a discussion on, please post your suggestion in the comments below for a chance to be featured in a  future chapter. 

Resources

R.L Stevenson - Poetry Foundation 

R.L Stevenson - Britannica