What Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote. Robert Stevenson - biography and interesting facts about the writer
Robert Stevenson is one of the most famous writers, often considered the author of one book - the novel Treasure Island, a romantic and young adult work. Despite this, Stevenson was a controversial man, and his most famous novel actually deeper than it may seem.
The influence of national culture on the future writer
Scotsman by birth, Scotsman by upbringing and Scotsman by national spirit - these are the characteristics that very accurately describe a person like Robert Louis Stevenson. The writer's biography confirms that Scottish culture and history had a huge influence on the formation of Stevenson as a person. Was born future writer in Edinburgh - cultural and political
On his mother's side, the future writer belonged to the old and famous family of Balfour, who came from noble clans of the border and lowland parts of Scotland.
Family history, his own pedigree, deep roots - these are the things that Robert Stevenson was keenly interested in. The biography indicates that, wherever he was, he always remained a true Scotsman. Even while in Polynesia, where the temperature never dropped below 40 degrees, he built a typical Scottish fireplace in his house.
Childhood and youth
Robert Louis Stevenson was the only child in the family. When he was little, he suffered serious illness, which subsequently influenced him until the end of his days. Louis often had a fever, he was constantly coughing, and he was short of air. All common biographies indicate pulmonary tuberculosis or very severe problems with the bronchi. Sickness, pallor, weakness and thinness are things that Robert Stevenson suffered from all his life. The author's photos clearly confirm this.
The author remembers his childhood and youth as endless periods of fever, pain and insomnia. The boy was sent to school at the age of six, but due to his condition, his studies were not successful. Lewis changed several schools, personal teachers, and for some time studied at a prestigious school for children of famous and wealthy parents - the Edinburgh Academy. Obeying his father, he decides to continue the family business and enters where he studies engineering, in particular the construction of lighthouses.
Interest in literature
Engineering and lighthouse building were things that Robert Louis Stevenson was really interested in. His biography indicates that he was willing to engage in the practical part of his studies, which was carried out on construction sites. The program also included lowering in a spacesuit to the seabed, where it was possible to study the underwater terrain and rocks that served as the basis for the construction of the lighthouse.
Some time later, Lewis applied for participation in a competition at the Royal Scottish Society of Science, where he presented his poem “ The new kind flashing light for lighthouses,” for which he received a silver medal. Within two weeks, in a serious conversation with his father, Stevenson declares that he wants to quit engineering. The father was against literature, so it was decided that his son would become a lawyer. This option suited Louis. Firstly, practicing law gave him more free time, and secondly, Stevenson’s famous fellow countryman, Walter Scott, was also a lawyer, which did not prevent him from subsequently becoming a famous writer. Lewis passed all the exams and received the title of lawyer, but this was only confirmation that he was in fact a writer.
Beginning of literary activity
The writer Robert Stevenson first announced himself at the age of sixteen. At the expense of his father, a small book entitled “The Pentland Rebellion” was published. History page, 1666." Here the young author described two centuries of peasant uprisings in Scotland. This work was not famous, but the author’s interest in national history, as well as the desire to be objective and accurate.
The first serious work was Robert Stevenson's novel Roads. The name is very symbolic, because, despite the fact that Stevenson was sickly and weak, his vital needs and spiritual impulses forced him to travel a lot.
First travels
In 1876, Stevenson and his friends took a kayak trip along the rivers and canals of France and Belgium. The final destination was Paris, but the friends also stopped in riverside villages, rich in their history. had a huge influence on Stevenson. Returning home, he immediately began work on a description of his journey, which later turned into the work “Journey into the Inland”, and also influenced his subsequent work.
The author describes the process of travel itself, various funny and absurd situations that happened during the trip, describes the people, their characters and morals. At the same time, he does this easily and unobtrusively, allowing the reader to form his own opinion about everything. It was during this journey that Robert Stevenson met Fanny Osborne, who later became Fanny Stevenson.
Fanny
Lewis met Frances Matilda Osborne in one of the French villages at a time when she was interested in painting. Almost all biographers claim that this meeting was love at first sight. Fanny was ten years older than Lewis, married to a loser, had two children, and was seeking solitude after the death of her youngest child. They talked a lot, spent time together, and after breaking up they constantly corresponded.
A few years later, in 1879, Robert Stevenson received a letter from Fanny, the contents of which remained unknown to history. Presumably she was talking about her serious illness. Lewis's condition at that time was difficult: a prolonged illness, financial problems, a quarrel with his father, the words of friends who said that Fanny married woman. None of this stopped Lewis. He quickly got ready and headed to America, where Fanny lived at that time. The journey was long and difficult.
After arriving in America, he traveled for a long time on an immigrant train from New York to San Francisco. However, Fanny was not there; she moved to Monterrey. Lewis went on another journey. He was riding alone on a horse. On the way, his condition worsened greatly, and he lost consciousness. He was found by a local bear hunter who nursed Lewis, who had been on the edge of life and death for several days. Having gained strength, Stevenson finally reached Fanny.
Despite all the obstacles, in 1880 Stevenson married Fanny Osborne and returned home with his wife, her children and a huge store of knowledge, impressions and life experience. Fanny and her children accompanied Stevenson on his travels and were with him until his last days.
Type of traveler in Stevenson's works
Travel played a huge role in the author’s work. This theme was not new in literature, but other writers saw the heroic traveler differently from Robert Stevenson. The author's works describe a traveler who behaves illogically and imprudently. Such a traveler was most often an artist or writer. He does not seek any benefits and refuses rewards or additional privileges.
Stevenson started traditionally. The journey was depicted as a small and simple walk, during which all the idiocy of the average person is revealed. Later, other famous writers, including K. Jerome, used this idea in their work.
The experience gained on the first and subsequent voyages influenced literary activity author, including his most famous work - the novel “Treasure Island”.
"Treasure Island"
Treasure Island is undoubtedly Robert Louis Stevenson's most famous novel. The still unfinished work was published in a well-known children's magazine under a pseudonym, but did not bring popularity. Moreover, the editors of the magazine often received negative and even indignant responses. The novel was published as a separate book and with the real name of the author a year later. This time the novel was an undoubted success.
Despite the fact that the novel has a fairly simple plot and plot, like any adventure novel, it contains moments of tension. The author creates the overall picture not by a detailed description of everyday situations, but by the very form of the narration. Stevenson makes heavy use of dialogue, which gives the plot a more active and dramatic feel.
Although the novel is considered a young adult romance, it has serious issues and themes at its heart. In particular, we're talking about about the problem of contrasting characters, emotional experiences and about the confrontation between good and evil.
"Cursed Janet"
Robert Louis Stevenson embodies his interest in the soul and essence of man in the work “Cursed Janet.” In this story, the author decided to combine the real and the fantastic, and also turn to what has always been dear to him - Scottish traditions and motifs. Despite the fact that the work is relatively small, in it the author managed to show very deeply human soul, her fears and experiences.
Thanks to the special form of narration, the author managed to make everything real in the story seem fantastic, and everything fantastic - real. At the same time, the story itself is completely logical and believable. The problem of mental experiences became so interesting to the author, he continues to reveal it further, in particular in the famous story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
The impetus for writing the story was Stevenson’s acquaintance with Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment, where the problems of human morality and morality were presented in a new way. The hero of the story - the smart, respectful, respectable Dr. Jekyll - as a result of an unsuccessful experiment, splits his personality and releases his ugly and evil double, Mr. Hyde.
Stevenson raises the problem of the purpose of life, the problem of freedom, choice, internal composure and lightness. The story was written in a form that was not expected from Stevenson, and caused general delight.
Novel "The Owner of Ballantrae"
This work by Lewis is considered one of the darkest, but it was in it that Stevenson reached the pinnacle of his skill. It was in this novel that he combined the two most important topics of his creativity: the confrontation between good and evil and an appeal to Scottish traditions and history. In the novel, he describes two brothers whose characters vividly embody these problems. The author tried to find the roots of these problems deeply, starting from national character and ending with puritanism in the country.
Robert Louis Stevenson (birth name Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson) was born on November 13, 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father Thomas belonged to a family of engineers who built most of the deep sea lighthouses around the Scottish coast.
In 1867 he entered the University of Edinburgh, but despite family tradition study natural sciences in order to become a civil engineer, he spent more time French literature, history of Scotland. Ultimately choosing law, he graduated from the university in 1875 and received the title of lawyer.
At the age of 18, Stevenson abandoned his baptismal name. He completely eliminated the name Balfour, and changed the spelling of the name Lewis from Lewis to Louis, but the pronunciation did not change.
His first successes in the literary field and poor health convinced him to prefer literature to the legal profession. In the late 1870s, he traveled through France, Germany and his native Scotland, as a result of which his first two books of travel impressions appeared - "Trips within the Country" (1878) and "Travels with a Donkey" (1879). The “essays” written during this period were collected by him in 1881 in a book with the Latin title Virginibus Puerisque.
A turning point in Stevenson's personal life was a meeting in September 1876 with a 36-year-old married American woman, Fanny Osborne, who was interested in painting. She divorced her husband in 1878 and married Stevenson in 1880. Stevenson became friends with her children, and subsequently his stepson Lloyd Osborne co-authored his books Mistake (1889), Low Tide (1894) and The Castaways (1892).
In 1880, Stevenson was diagnosed with tuberculosis. In search of a healing climate, he visited Switzerland, the south of France, Bournemouth (England), and from 1887 to 1888 he lived in Saranac Lake in New York State (USA). Partly due to poor health, partly to collect material for essays, Stevenson went on a yacht with his wife, mother and stepson to southern regions Pacific Ocean. They visited the Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu, Tahiti, Hawaii, Micronesia and Australia and purchased a plot of land in Samoa, deciding to settle in the tropics for a long time to save money. He named his possession Vailima (Pyatirechye). The island's climate benefited the writer: some of his best works were written in the spacious plantation house in Vailima.
Stevenson published a collection of critical articles, Familiar Studies of Men and Books. Soon after this, stories published in London Magazine, “New Arabian Tales” (1882), were published as a separate edition.
The novel "Treasure Island" (1883, Russian translation - 1886), which became a classic example of adventure literature, brought world fame to the writer. The novel is based on the life story of the famous Indian Ocean pirate William Kidd, who was executed in 1701.
Then the action-packed novels “Kidnapped” (1886), “The Owner of Ballantrae” (1889), “Shipwrecked” (1892), and “Catriona” (1893) were written, where the world of profit and self-interest is contrasted with purity of thoughts and high morality. In the historical novels "Prince Otto" (1885), "Black Arrow" (1888), the romance of adventure is combined with an accurate recreation of local color and historical setting. Stevenson's psychological story "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) provides a classic English literature solution to the double theme.
Stevenson published collections of poems "Children's Flower Garden of Poems" (1885), "Undergrowth" (1887), etc. His children's poems and ballads in the spirit of folk poetry are distinguished by simple and clear language.
On December 3, 1894, Robert Stevenson died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was buried on one of the Samoan islands.
After the writer's death, the novels Weir Hermiston, Saint Ives and others were published.
Stevenson revived the adventure and historical novel in England. But he was interested in adventure for adventure's sake. In the historical novel, he refused to depict large social events, limiting his works to showing the adventures of heroes, for which history serves only as an incidental background.
In December 1969, the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum was opened in Vailima, Samoa. The museum is located in the house in which Stevenson spent the last years of his life (1890-1894).
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
A country: Great Britain
Was born: November 13, 1850
Died: December 3, 1894
Nicknames:
Captain George North
Robert Louis Stevenson (originally Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson)- Scottish writer and poet, author of world-famous adventure novels and stories, largest representative English neo-romanticism.
Stevenson was born on November 13, 1850 in Edinburgh, in the family of a hereditary engineer, a specialist in lighthouses. He received his secondary education at the Edinburgh Academy, his higher education at the University of Edinburgh, where he first studied as an engineer, received a silver medal at the Scottish Academy competition in 1871 for his work “A New Type of Flashing Light for Lighthouses,” but then moved to the Faculty of Law, where he graduated in 1875 Having received the name Robert Lewis Balfour at baptism, he renounced Balfour at the age of 18 ( maiden name mother) in his name, and also changed the spelling from Lewis to Louis. It is said that the Conservative Thomas Stevenson did not like a Liberal named Lewis and decided to write his son's name (who was almost never called Robert in the family) in French but pronounce it in English.
At the age of three he fell ill with croup, which led to serious consequences. According to most biographers, Stevenson suffered from a severe form of pulmonary tuberculosis (according to E.N. Caldwell, who referred to the opinions of doctors who treated or examined the writer, a severe bronchial disease).
In his youth, he wanted to marry Kat Drummond, a singer from a night tavern, but did not do so under pressure from his father.
The first book, essay “The Pentland Rebellion. Page of History, 1666,” a brochure published in a hundred copies with his father’s money, was published in 1866 (even then Stevenson’s great interest in the history of his native Scotland was evident). In 1873, the essay “The Road” was published, simply titled symbolic name(despite his illness, Stevenson traveled a lot). Three years later, together with his friend William Simpson, he traveled by kayak along the rivers and canals of Belgium and France. In the French village of Barbizon, which became the center of the Barbizon art school founded by the late Theodore Rousseau, where, thanks to the railway route from Paris, young English and American artists came to the urban community, Stevenson met Frances (Fanny) Matilda Osborne. This married woman, who was ten years older than Stevenson, was fond of painting and therefore was among the artists. Together with her, a sixteen-year-old daughter (the future stepdaughter of Isabel Osborne, who later wrote Stevenson's works from dictation) and a nine-year-old son (the future stepson and co-author of the writer Lloyd Osborne) came to Barbizon.
Returning to Edinburgh, Stevenson published a book of essays, An Inland Journey (1878). The year before, he had published his first piece of art- story “The Overnight of Francois Villon.” In 1878, again in France, Stevenson wrote the cycles of stories “The Suicide Club” and “The Rajah’s Diamond”, united by one character, which were published in the magazine “London” from June to October under the title “The Modern Thousand and One Nights”. Four years later, a series of stories (called “The New Thousand and One Nights”) was published as a separate book.
Having finished the stories about Prince Florizel (Florizel, Prince of Bohemia, by the way, one of the heroes of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale), Stevenson made another trip - to the places where French Protestants fought a guerrilla war. In June 1879, he published the book Traveling with a Donkey (the donkey carrying the luggage was his only companion). At the beginning of the 20th century, young writers called this book “Travels with Sidney Colvin,” disapproving of the way a close friend of the late Stevenson was preparing for publication a four-volume edition of the latter’s letters, which he subjected to real censorship.
In August 1879, Stevenson received a letter from Fanny Osborne from California. This letter has not survived; it is assumed that she reported her serious illness. Arriving in San Francisco, he did not find Fanny there; exhausted by a long and difficult trip, the writer had to go to Monterey, where she moved. On May 19, 1880, Stevenson married Fanny in San Francisco, who managed to divorce her husband. In August, with her and her children, he sailed from New York to Liverpool. On the ship, Stevenson wrote essays that formed the book “The Amateur Emigrant,” and, upon returning, he created the story “House on the Dunes.”
Stevenson had long wanted to write a novel, he even tried to start, but all his plans and attempts led nowhere. Watching his stepson draw something, his stepfather got carried away and made a map of an imaginary island. In September 1881, he began writing a novel, which he initially wanted to call The Ship's Cook. He read what he wrote to his family. Stevenson's father suggested that his son include Billy Bones' chest and a barrel of apples in the book.
When the owner of the children's magazine Young Folks became acquainted with the first chapters and the general plan, he began publishing the novel in his magazine in October (under the pseudonym "Captain George North" and not on the first pages). In January 1882, the publication of Treasure Island ended, but did not bring success to the author. The editors of the magazine received many indignant letters. The first book edition was published (under the real name) only in November 1883. The circulation did not sell out immediately, but the success of the second edition, as well as the third, illustrated one, was undeniable. "Treasure Island" brought Stevenson world fame(the first Russian translation was made in 1886), became an example of a classic adventure novel. In 1884-1885, Stevenson wrote the historical adventure novel The Black Arrow for Young Folks. The Black Arrow; book edition was published in 1888, Russian translation - 1889). Stevenson's novel “Prince Otto” was published as a book in 1885 (Russian translation - 1886), and in the same year the collection of short stories “And Another Thousand and One Nights” (“Dynamite”) was published.
Stevenson did not take his poems seriously for a long time and did not offer them to publishers. However, after getting married and returning to his homeland from the USA, he composed 48 poems evoked by memories of his childhood, compiled a collection of “Penny Whistles”, and printed a few copies in a printing house for friends (among Stevenson’s friends were Henry James and the Scottish writer Samuel Crocket) and stopped there. He returned to poetry a few years later, when he was very ill, revised the collection and published it in 1885 under a different name. The collection, published here in 1920 (and in abridged form) as “Children's Flower Garden of Poems” (there are other Russian translations of the title), has become a classic of English poetry for children. Two years later, Stevenson released a second collection of poetry (for adults) and called it “Underwoods,” borrowing the name from Ben Jonson. “My poems are not a forest, but an undergrowth,” he himself explained, “but they have meaning and can be read.”
In 1885, Stevenson read F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” in French translation. The impression was reflected in the story “Markheim,” from which it was not far from the fantastic-psychological story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekill and Mr. Hyde,” published in January of the following year.
Already in May, the first chapters of Kidnapped (Russian translation - 1901), a new adventure novel, appeared on the pages of Young Folks. “Two works so different in their essence have rarely come from the pen of the same author, even at much longer intervals,” wrote Stevenson scholar Stephen Gwynne. In the same year, 1886, a book edition was published. Main character"Kidnapped" - David Balfour (memory of maternal ancestors who, according to family tradition, belonged to the MacGregor clan, like Walter Scott's Rob Roy).
In 1887, a collection of short stories was published. Merry fellows and Other Tales" ("The Merry Men, and Other Tales"), which included stories from 1881-1885, including "Markheim" and the very first of the Scottish stories, "The Damned Janet".
The following year, Stevenson and his family set off to travel the South Seas. At the same time, he wrote the novel “The Owner of Ballantrae,” which was published in 1889 (The Master of Ballantrae, Russian translation - 1890).
Since 1890, Stevenson lived in the Samoan Islands. At the same time, the collection “Ballads” was published; In Russia, the ballad “Heather Honey” translated by Samuil Marshak is very popular.
On the Samoan Islands, a collection of stories was written “Evening Conversations on the Island” (Island Night's Entertainments, 1893, Russian translation 1901), a continuation of “Kidnapped” “Catriona” (Catriona, 1893, in a magazine publication - “David Balfour”, Russian translation - 1901), “St. Ives” (St. Ives, completed after Stevenson’s death by Arthur Quiller-Kuch, 1897, Russian translation - 1898). All these (as well as previous) novels are distinguished by a combination of exciting adventurous plots, deep penetration into history and subtle psychological study of the characters. Stevenson's last novel, Weir of Hermiston (1896), which the author counted on as his best book, remained unfinished.
Together with his stepson Lloyd Osborne, Stevenson wrote novels of modern life, The Wrong Box (1889, Russian translation - 2004), The Wrecker (1892, Russian translation - 1896, this novel was especially appreciated by Jorge Luis Borges ), "Ebb-Tide" (The Ebb-Tide, 1894).
Stevenson's works were translated into Russian by Konstantin Balmont, Valery Bryusov, Jurgis Baltrushaitis, Vladislav Khodasevich, Osip Rumer, Ignatius Ivanovsky, Ivan Kashkin, Korney Chukovsky. Leonid Borisov wrote a novel about him, “Under the Flag of Katriona.”
Stevenson died on December 3, 1894, of a stroke on the island of Upolu in Samoa. From morning until evening he wrote “Weir Germiston”, reaching almost the middle. Then he went down to the living room and tried to entertain his wife, who was in a gloomy mood. We got ready to have dinner, Stevenson brought a bottle of Burgundy. Suddenly he grabbed his head and shouted: “What’s wrong with me?” By the beginning of the ninth he was no longer alive. The Samoans, who called Stevenson Tusitala (“storyteller”; the writer told them, for example, the story of the Satanic bottle, later reflected in the fairy tale from the collection “Evening Conversations on the Island”), raised him, covered with the British flag, to the top of Mount Vea, where buried. The grave has been preserved, with a rectangular concrete tombstone above it.
A short film from Youtube.com about the life and work of Robert Louis Stevenson:
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Bibliography
Robert Louis Stevenson. Cycles of works
The Suicide Club [= The Adventures of Prince Florizel]
The Suicide Club
Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts (1878)
The Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk (1878)
The Adventure of the Hansom Cabs" [= Adventures with Cabbies] (1878)
Rajah's Diamond [= Rajah's Diamond]
The Story of the Bandbox [= The Adventures of a Cardboard Box] (1878)
Story of the Young Man in Holy Orders [= Story of young man ordination] (1878)
Story of the House with the Green Blinds (1878)
The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective [= Prince Florizel and the Detective] (1878)
Dynamite. More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter (1885) // Co-author: Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson
Children's flower garden of poems / A Child's Garden of Verses [= Children's garden of poems] [poetic cycle]
To Alison Cunningham / To Alison Cunningham (1885)
The Child Alone (1885)
Garden Days (1885)
Messages / Envoys (1885)
Adventures of David Balfour
Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751 [= Kidnapped, or the Adventures of David Balfour] (1886)
Catriona / Catriona [= Catriona, or the Further Adventures of David Balfour] (1893)
Robert Louis Stevenson. Novels
Robert Louis Stevenson. Poetry
1885 Messages / Envoys [poem collection]
1885 Garden Days [poem collection]
1885 The Child Alone [poetry collection]
1885 To Alison Cunningham / To Alison Cunningham [poetry collection]
1891 Christmas at Sea [ballad]
1891 Heather Ale [= Heather Beer] [ballad]
1891 Rahiro / Rahero [ballad]
1891 The Feast [ballad]
1891 The Lovers [ballad]
1891 The Place of the Name [ballad]
1891 The Priest’s Vigil [ballad]
1891 The Raid [ballad]
1891 The Saying of the Name [ballad]
1891 The Seeking of the Name [ballad]
1891 The Slaying of Tamatea [ballad]
1891 The Venging of Tamatea [ballad]
Robert Louis Stevenson. Plays
1884 Admiral Guinea
1884 Beau Austin [co-written with W. I. Henley]
1888 Deacon Brodie, or, The Double Life [co-authored with W. I. Henley]
1895 Macaire: A Melodramatic Farce in Three Acts [co-authored with W. I. Henley]
1922 The Hanging Judge // Co
Robert Louis Stevenson. Articles
1871 Debating Societies
1871 Edinburgh Students in 1824
1871 The Modern Students Considered Generally
1871 The Philosophy of Nomenclature
1871 The Philosophy of Umbrellas
1873 Roads
1874 Lord Lytton's Fables
1874 Notes on the Movements of Young Children
1874 On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places
1875 An Autumn Effect
1876 Forest Notes
1881 The Morality of the Profession of Letters
1882 Paths book illustrations: Baxter Pilgrim's way / Byways of Book Illustration: Bagster's Pilgrim's Progress
1882 Byways of Book Illustration: Two Japanese Romances
1883 Sketch in the genre of realism / A Note on Realism
1884 Fontainebleau: Village Communities of Painters
1885 A Note for the Reader
1885 Several technical aspects literary styles/ On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature
1887 Books which have Influenced Me
1887 Memoir of Fleming Jenkin
1887 The Day After Tomorrow
1888 Gentlemen
1888 Popular Authors
1888 Some Gentlemen in Fiction
1889 How “The Master of Ballantrae” came into being / The Genesis of “the Master of Ballantrae [= Preface to the novel “The Master of Ballantrae”]
1894 My First Book: Treasure Island [= My first book “Treasure Island”]
Robert Louis Stevenson. Essay
1871 An Old Scotch Gardener
1874 South by order / Ordered South
1874 Victor Hugo's Romances
1875 John Knox and his Relations with Women
1876 Charles of Orleans
1876 Virginibus Puerisque
1876 Walking Tours
1877 An Apology for Idlers
1877 Francois Villon - student, poet, housebreaker / Francois Villon, student, poet, housebreaker
1877 On Falling in Love
1878 A Plea for Gas Lamps
1878 Aes Triplex
1878 Child's Play
1878 Youth and adolescence / Crabbed Age and Youth
1878 Eldorado / El Dorado
1878 Pan's Pipes
1878 The English Admirals
1878 The Gospel According to Walt Whitman
1879 Some Aspects of Robert Burns [= Taking a Closer Look at Robert Burns]
1879 Truth of Intercourse
1880 Henry David Thoreau: His Character and Opinions" [= Henry David Thoreau]
1880 Yoshido Torashiro / Yoshida-Torajiro
1881 Samuel Pepys
1882 A Gossip on Romance
1882
Stevenson Robert Lewis (1850-1894) - English writer, Scottish by birth, literary critic, poet, founder and theorist of neo-romanticism.
Stevenson was born in Edinburgh (Scotland) in the family of a lighthouse engineer. I have been sick a lot since childhood. It seemed that he had no opportunity to become the future author of one of the most famous adventure novels, since he had an extremely large number of illnesses. Read below for a more detailed biography of Robert Stevenson.
Childhood illness and the beginning of creativity
WITH early childhood he was a resident of, in his own words, “blanket country.” Indeed, due to constant ill health, he spent more time in bed than in boyish games on the street or at the table, reading an interesting book. Doctors gave a twelve-year-old boy a terrible diagnosis - consumption. In those days, this was equivalent to death. Perhaps these difficult trials actually taught Stevenson to appreciate life, to sincerely rejoice in every day he lived and try to be happy.
Can't go on a real sea voyage? And then dream and fantasy came to the rescue. His creative abilities were developed in him by his nanny, who knew many stories, recited the poems of R. Burns by heart and told scary stories at night. At the age of 15, the first work appeared in the biography of Robert Stevenson - he wrote his first book, “The Petland Uprising.”
At the age of 17, Robert began studying law at the University of Edinburgh (graduated in 1875). Although Stevenson became a lawyer, his greatest dream was to become a writer.
Stevenson's Treasure Island is an unsurpassed masterpiece
Fame came to him when in 1883 he published the novel “Treasure Island” as a separate edition. As the writer recalled, he once played with his stepson Lloyd Osborne. They competed to see who could draw the best geographical map. It was then that Stevenson created the map of Treasure Island. On the second day, he sat down to write a novel, which he called “The Ship's Cook,” but the publisher did not like the name, and they decided to change the title to “Treasure Island.” An inquisitive reader will notice in this work details of many famous adventure books. Stevenson did not deny this. He openly said that, for example, the parrot in the novel “flew” from Robinson Crusoe, and he borrowed the skeleton from the short story “The Gold Bug” by the famous American writer Edgar Poe. By the way, the story on which the novel “Treasure Island” is based is not such a writer’s invention. In those days, as today, many people raved about the countless treasures of pirates or their victims that were prudently hidden in different places around the globe and which could be found behind certain secret signs.
For example, on the island where Alexander Selkirk lived for more than four years and which was later named Robinson Crusoe Island, they are still looking for a huge treasure that was hidden there several years after Selkirk’s liberation. Stevenson seemed to have collected in his book all the features and findings of adventure literature, which is difficult to imagine without secret maps, hidden treasures and warlike pirates.
The first listeners and critics of the yet unpublished novel were the writer's father and stepson. Stevenson recalled that when it was necessary to fill Billy Bones' chest, the writer's father spent almost the entire day on the back of an envelope from some business letter making a register of what should be in the former pirate's hiding place. This list is almost completely included in the novel. In general, Stevenson managed to fill his work with details that, in the reader’s imagination, precisely after this novel, were closely associated with the world of adventure and mystery: a fiery pirate song, a terrible black mark, a mysterious map and an island lost in the ocean, full of gold, washed in blood.
Deteriorating health and moving to Samoa
The success of Treasure Island provided material wealth for Stevenson's family, but his advancing illness required climate change, and so he left his beloved Scotland. The biography of Robert Stevenson was filled with new events and adventures. The writer and his whole family went on a trip to the southern seas. He settled on the Samoan Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Local residents were at first wary of the stranger, because they were accustomed to the fact that Europeans appeared in their area only to enrich themselves. But Stevenson did not show disdain for the local population, but he warmly welcomed them into his house, which seemed like a huge palace to the locals, and listened with pleasure to their stories from ancient times.
Very soon, local residents came to Stevenson’s house not only to listen to the owner’s amazing and incredible stories, but also to ask for help. He advised them how to protect themselves from the colonialists, how best to care for their land and where it would be more profitable to sell certain goods. The white colonialists did not like the writer, but the local residents, as a sign of special respect and trust, gave him the name Tusitala - “white leader-storyteller,” because they believed in the magical power of his words. And this force was great, one only has to remember how much publicity Stevenson’s article about the shameless robbery of the islands by the leading European countries that colonized Samoa generated in Europe.
Amazing facts from Stevenson's biography
The Samoans themselves built a road to Stevenson's house and called it the Road of Gratitude. The death of the writer became a great grief. Whole villages of them went to say goodbye to Tusitala. The council of chiefs decided to bury him at the top of the highest mountain. However, getting there was extremely difficult, because the mountain was surrounded on all sides by dense tropical forest, and by that time not a single person had set foot on it. Then the strongest men set off and, at the cost of incredible efforts, cut a clearing in the humid jungle to get to the final resting place of a man who was able to overcome fate. And then the leaders, under pain of great punishment from the gods, forbade everyone to shoot near the mountain where Stevenson’s body was buried, “so that the birds could sing peacefully over his grave.”
Stevenson's works are read with interest by both children and adults. Stevenson is considered the founder and theorist of the neo-romantic movement in literature. He acutely felt the gap between reality and dreams and looked for the unusual in everyday life. The writer retained a craving for beauty throughout his life, strove to give life fullness and brightness, to find in an ordinary person hero. Stevenson was extremely attentive to the word, he is considered an unsurpassed writer.
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(1850-1894) English writer, critic and publicist
The biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, a man of courageous character and dramatic fate, excited the imagination of his contemporaries along with his works. His name and life are covered in legends. Immediately after the writer’s death, his lengthy biographies, articles and essays were published with sensational guesses about various episodes of Stevenson’s life.
Modern literary criticism sees in him the founder, theorist and leading figure of English romanticism of the last quarter of the 19th century, called neo-romanticism.
The writer contrasted the bourgeois world of the pursuit of wealth, the world of self-interest and falsehood with the exoticism of adventure and the romance of high impulses towards goodness and justice.
Having lived only 44 years, Robert Louis Stevenson left readers more than 30 volumes of works of various genres and themes.
He realized his calling as a writer very early, already in his childhood. He always had two books stuck in his pocket: he read one, and in the other he kept notes of the exact words, details, and lines of poetry that struck him. It was a school of excellence. He wrote a lot, imitating famous writers, “being an ape,” as he himself said. This developed literary taste, a sense of harmony and professional technique.
Robert Stevenson was born in the political and cultural center of Scotland - the city of Edinburgh, like Walter Scott. His grandfather was a prominent civil engineer who built bridges, lighthouses and breakwaters. The painting by the famous English artist John Turner depicts the Devil's Fist lighthouse he built on Bell Rock in eastern Scotland. For his glorious buildings, my grandfather was awarded a coat of arms. His sons continued their father's work. The grandson valued his family's pedigree, but he chose a different path.
Mother belonged to the glorious old family of Balfour, was the daughter of a priest. Robert, only child in the family, since childhood he suffered from bronchial disease, which often confined him to his bed and plunged him into a painful state.
Robert Stevenson studied for some time at the University of Edinburgh, agreeing with his father’s wish to continue the family engineering tradition, and even received a silver medal for a competitive essay on fire for lighthouses, then he decisively changed his profession as an engineer to a lawyer and received the title of lawyer, but his soul was already alive in full force dream of literature. The aspiring writer’s first experience was a thin book, written by a 16-year-old boy and published at his father’s expense, about the peasant uprising in Scotland in 1666.
In 1876, together with a friend, Robert went on a kayak trip along the rivers and canals of Belgium and France to Paris. The young man knew very well French and literature. Upon returning to Edinburgh, he published Inland Travel (1876), travel essays whose style would be picked up by Jerome. K. Jerome in the book “Three Men in a Boat”, where a critical look at the existing world of things is deftly woven into the outline of travel notes.
In a number of articles, Robert Stevenson reflects on the tasks of art and gives main role not a realistic reproduction of life, but the realm of imagination. Let the writer be captivated by the story of something that the reader will never experience in real life. To a certain extent, this came from Stevenson’s rejection of mercantile reality. He tried to develop the best feelings in people - impatience, daring, determination, nobility.
He had long been fascinated by the personality of the most talented poet of France, Francois Villon - a knight of honor, a tramp, a drunkard and a thief, in whom good and evil were mixed. In 1877, the story “The Overnight of François Villon” appeared in print, in which, against the backdrop of winter Paris in 1456, tragic fate an unusually talented poet, is Stevenson's first work of fiction.
Under the title “The New Thousand and One Nights” (1882), the writer creates a witty parody of craft adventure literature. The new "Tales of Shahrazad" consisted of two books - "The Suicide Club" and "The Rajah's Diamond". In the second book, in a fantastic story about a priceless diamond, the possession of which turns the rough colonial soldier Thomas Vandeleur into a famous socialite, a profitable suitor, Robert Stevenson subtly depicted how true values are replaced by false ones under the influence of the magical evil force contained in the coveted stone. The tales contained wise allusions to serious problems in English society.
In 1878, accompanied by a donkey dragging luggage without any pleasure, Robert Louis Stevenson set off along historical places guerrilla warfare French Protestants for their independence and beliefs. He talked about this in “Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes” (1879).
In “Studies about People and Books” he draws portraits. Readers appreciated the mastery of the young author's elegant style and talent as a storyteller about extraordinary adventures. An unexpected trip to New York, prompted by a letter from the woman he dearly loved, almost cost Stevenson his life. He crossed the ocean and rode on horseback from San Francisco to Monterey. On the way, he fell ill and a local hunter found him lying unconscious under a tree. On the brink of life and death, Robert Stevenson will find himself in America more than once. He married Fanny, who finally got a divorce from her dissolute husband, returned to his homeland and published the book “House on the Dunes” - best work early period of creativity. In an entertaining story, Stevenson revealed a meaningful topic: using the example of the very bright and strong characters of two heroes - Frank Cassilis and Northmore - he showed the failure of individualism and selfishness of the traditional romantic hero.
Robert Stevenson's desire to create a novel came true completely by accident. While drawing something one day, his stepson Lloyd asked him to write something interesting. Carried away, Stevenson sketched the contours of an imaginary island that resembled a “rising fat dragon.” The result is a map of the fictional “Treasure Island”. This map gave birth to the plot.
“The Ship's Cook” was the first title of the novel. Its chapters were read in the family circle, and some of what was suggested by the listeners was included in the text. The work was published with a dedication to the boy - Lloyd Osborne. The public greeted the novel enthusiastically, magazine critics - in different ways, from condescending approval to high praise. The plot is based on the search for countless treasures hidden by the famous pirate Captain Flint. Residents of a provincial town: the boy Jim, his innkeeper father and the tavern regulars - find themselves faced with mysterious events, get involved in a risky adventure and become heroes of tempting and dangerous adventures. The boy finds himself in extremely dangerous situations, looks death in the eye, acts decisively and independently; his courage, enthusiastic devotion to his dream, and moral purity set the tone for the entire book. Jim and his friends face marauding pirates, bandits and scoundrels rather than noble corsairs. And in this world of evil, his hero discovers true spiritual treasures.
Robert Stevenson loved Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe and saw its merits not so much in the chain of incidents as in the “charm of circumstance.” And he built his novel not so much on the effect of purely external action, but on the psychological authenticity and persuasiveness of living pictures. Stevenson's skill in the ability to paint such a convex picture is so convincing that we constantly feel involved in what is happening.
The traditional adventurous plot - pirates, treasures, sea adventures, a lost island - turned out to be completely unconventional thanks to the sharpness and open-mindedness of the hero-storyteller Jim Hawkins. The characters are depicted visibly and convincingly.
The author's special success is the image of John Silver. Polemicsizing the traditional idea of the victory of good and the depravity of evil, Stevenson paints an attractive image of the lonely ship's cook Silver - treacherous, evil, cruel, but smart, energetic and dexterous.
The vitality of evil and the insidious attractiveness of vice had previously interested and worried Robert Stevenson. In 1885, he read Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” in French translation and was shocked by the power of imagination, the mystical duality of good and evil in human nature.
IN " Strange story Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) the doctor, using a drug he invented, separates dark forces his soul, and his double is born - the ugly dwarf Mr. Hyde, who commits one crime after another and at the same time does not experience pangs of conscience, no doubts - only a feeling of anger and fear.
Techniques science fiction and the detective story developed by Robert Stevenson in this story were adopted by H. G. Wells in The Invisible Man.
The theme of Scotland's struggle with England for independence and even more distant pages of history - the enmity of the Scarlet and White Roses - were presented on the pages of the novels "Kidnapped", "Catriona" and "Black Arrow".
In Kidnapped and Catriona, Stevenson tells the story of a young Scot, David Balfour, whose inheritance is stolen by his uncle. An encounter with violence and deceit gives rise not to despair in the young hero, but to youthful determination and courage. After experiencing many adventures, David finds happiness with Catriona.
In 1888, the time had come for Robert Louis Stevenson to travel on the ocean. Over the course of two years, he visited several archipelagos in the Pacific Ocean. These were the places where the famous Cook traveled and died, where there were also Russians who committed circumnavigation where Herman Melville wandered, famous writer, where Jack London later sailed on the Snark, where there was “Robinson Crusoe Island.” Feeling renewed, Stevenson completed work on one of his best works, “The Owner of Ballantrae” (1889), a tragedy novel, as the author himself defined its genre. The writer explored the causes of the tragedy of two rival brothers, who embodied directly opposite principles in their characters: strength, devilish luck and depravity of one and decency, honesty, but lifelessness, amorphism of the other. The action takes place in Scotland in the 18th century, in places well known to the author.
Hoping to improve his health, Robert Stevenson settles on the island of Upolu (Samoa) and goes on his third voyage to the ocean. He works a lot and creates, shaken by a cough and rolling around with fatigue, “The Castaways” (1892), “David Balfour”, “Catriona” (1893), in which he contrasted selfishness and cruelty with spiritual nobility and moral purity. In all these works his homeland, Scotland, is ever present. The writer continues to work on the novels “St. Ives” and “Weir Hermiston.”
In the collection “Evening Conversations on the Island,” he reflected the exotic impressions of a trip to the islands, where he met Samoans and read them his story “The Satanic Bottle.” They called him Tusitala, that is, the Storyteller, and believed that he possessed a magical vessel, which was kept in his safe. Samoans carefully preserved the memory of the writer also because Robert Louis Stevenson spoke out in defense of the local population from the outrages of the colonialists and for several years published his articles in defense of peace and justice in Time. He visits a leper camp and exposes the hypocrisy of church ministers to the press.
The fate and history of Scotland rings a bell in the heart of the writer. He highly valued the role of the people's historical memory in creating the future. In his mind there arose the idea of “a real historical novel, covering the entire era and the people, our people...” The title was decided - “The Tramp”, but it was taken away right hand, bleeding from the throat became more frequent. And then there was a brain hemorrhage.
The body of Robert Stevenson, covered with the English national flag, was solemnly buried on Mount Weah. Here, to the grave of his beloved writer, Jack London sailed on the yacht “Snark” in 1908. He walked through the storms, standing at the helm and proud of his victory over the elements. With difficulty, together with his wife Charmian, he made his way through the dense thicket to the top of the mountain. Charmian was perplexed how they managed to deliver Stevenson's coffin to such a height, and Jack told her that, fulfilling the last will of the adored man who wished to be buried on this peak, several hundred islanders worked all night, cutting a road through the thickets. And in the morning, the tribal leaders solemnly carried him here on their shoulders, accompanied by thousands of admirers of the writer.
