Dreams of Elsewhere

Best known for his fiction writing, Robert Louis Stevenson was also an essayist, journalist, poet and travel writer. His first major work was An Inland Voyage, an account of his journey by canoe from Antwerp to northern France. The companion work to this, Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), is widely regarded as a travel-writing classic. June Skinner Sawyers has brought together the most comprehensive and representative sampling of Robert Louis Stevenson's prolific travel output, including excerpts from his most famous travel books, travel essays and travel poetry. The result is a collection that is as vivid and compelling as his fiction, and includes a number of lesser-known works from US collections. There are endlessly fascinating portraits of flesh-and-blood human beings, and it becomes apparent that he never grew tired of meeting new people, or of seeking new adventures. The story-teller always finds stories to tell and Stevenson was a consummate storyteller. In the tranquility of a French pine forest by moonlight he considers the importance of friendship; in a leper colony on Hawaii he reflects on physical horror and moral beauty; in all of his writing there is humanity and compasssion. Dreams of Elsewhere also features annotated listings of Stevenson historic sites, landmarks, museums, libraries, organisations, and even music inspired by Stevenson. As Gavin Bell, the critically acclaimed travel writer, states in his foreword: 'Admirers of RLS's work will welcome this judicious selection of sketches from an itinerant life. Those less familiar with his blythe spirit are in for a rare treat, a voyage of discovery with the teller of tales to where the surf murmurs on Parrot islands.'

Auteur

Robert Louis Stevenson

Contenu

Acknowledgements ix Foreword by Gavin Bell xi Chronology xiii Introduction xvii Scotland 1 On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places 3 from Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes 9 The Foreigner at Home 14 Memoirs of an Islet 22 The Manse: A Fragment 27 The Lantern-Bearers 32 Contributions to the History of Fife: Random Memories 36 The Education of an Engineer: More Random Memories 44 Sing Me a Song of a Lad That is Gone 51 A Winter's Walk in Carrick and Galloway: A Fragment 53 The Light-Keeper 60 England 63 Roads 65 Cockermouth and Keswick 70 An Autumn Effect 77 France and Belgium 91 Ordered South 93 Forest Notes 102 In the Latin Quarter 119 from An Inland Voyage 123 from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes 141 Fontainebleau 158 DREAMS LAYOUT 29/10/02 4:11 am Page vii America 171 from The Amateur Emigrant 173 Across the Plains 183 The Old Pacific Capital 211 Simoneau's at Monterey 223 San Francisco 228 from The Silverado Squatters 234 Winter 256 Switzerland 257 Davos in Winter 259 Health and Mountains 262 The Stimulation of the Alps 265 The South Seas 269 from Travels in Hawaii 271 from In the South Seas 280 Miscellaneous 301 Walking Tours 303 From a Railway Carriage 309 Evensong 310 Further Reading 311 Appendix 319