More than most writers, Robert Louis Stevenson requires a Literary Life. Fascination with Stevenson's life (the 'Stevenson biography' is almost a minor genre) has tended to eclipse his literary achievement. This study focuses on Stevenson's writing practice within the different geographical, cultural and political contexts that shaped it, from Scotland to the South Seas. Following Stevenson's own views on biography, the book is not structured primarily in terms of chronology, but is more a kind of literary geography than traditional literary history.

Autorentext

WILLIAM GRAY is Professor of Literary History and Hermeneutics at the University of Chichester, UK. He studied literature, philosophy and theology at the Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Princeton, and has published widely in these areas, including Death and Fantasy and books on C.S. Lewis and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Zusammenfassung
More than most writers, Robert Louis Stevenson requires a Literary Life. As Henry James commented on reading Balfour's Life: 'Louis... has superseded, personally, his books, and this last replacement of himself... has killed the literary baggage.' Serious critical attention to Stevenson's literary works has been relatively slow to appear, though the 'Life of Stevenson' continues to flourish, having become almost a minor genre in its own right. The version of Stevenson's literary life presented here embraces Stevenson's own reservations about the role of linear chronology in biography, and is more of a literary geography than a literary history. Its structure is defined by the various geographical and cultural contexts (Scotland, France, England, America and the South Seas) in which Stevenson lived and worked. This is the first literary biography of Stevenson since the publication of his Collected Letters, and makes use of previously unpublished letters.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction and Chronology The English Scene The French Connection Forever Scotland America In the South Seas Conclusion Notes Index