Category: Biography

Copyright/published Year: 2005 by Harper

ISBN: 0066209846

Binding: hardcover

Description: The short life of Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) was as ì adventurous as almost anything in his fiction: his travels, ì illness, struggles to become a writer, relationships with his ì volatile wife and step-family, friendships, and quarrels have ì fascinated readers for more than a century. He was both engineer ì and aesthete, dutiful son and reckless lover, Scotsman and South ì Sea Islander, Covenanter and atheist. Stevenson's books, ì including Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. ì Hyde, and Kidnapped, have achieved world fame; others -- The ì Master of Ballantrae, A Child's Garden of Verses, Travels with a ì Donkey -- remain all-time favorites. His unique gift for ì storytelling and dramatic characterization live in the ì consciousness even of those who have never read his work: Long ì John Silver, with his wooden leg and his parrot, is more real to ì most people than any historical pirate, while "Jekyll and Hyde" ì has become a universally recognized term for a split ì personality.

No biography has yet done justice to the complex, brilliant, ì and troubled man who was responsible for so many remarkable ì creations. His interest in psychology, genetics, technology, and ì feminism anticipated the concerns of the next century, while his ì experiments in narrative technique inspired postmodern innovators ì such as Borges and Nabokov. Stevenson's recently collected ì correspondence shows him to have been the least "Victorian" of ì Victorian writers; he was a man of humour, resilience, and ì strongly uncoventional views. With access to this and much ì previously unpublishedmaterial, distinguished biographer Claire ì Harman has written the most authoritative, comprehensive, and ì perceptive portrait of Stevenson to date.

Condition Information

This book is 'remaindered' and may have marks on the cover and/or bottom of pages and is in Good condition.

Additional condition description

Remainder mark on page bottoms. Cover has some "waviness" to it.