ENG 463 Robert Louis Stevenson
From WolfWikis
Ryan Gertz
Contents |
Brief Timeline
- 1850: Robert Louis Stevenson was born to Thomas and Margaret Isabella Balfour Stevenson in Edinburgh, Scotland on November 13
- 1867: Stevenson enrolled in Edinburgh University to study engineering (in order to join his family's firm).
- 1871: Stevenson decided to abandon his studies as an engineer, and focus on becoming a writer. After a talk with his father, Stevenson compromised and agreed to obtain a degree in law.
- 1875: Stevenson recieved a law degree, but barely practiced, focusing all his attention on writing.
- 1876 - Meets Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne at Grez, a riverside village south-east of Paris. Fanny at the time was thirty-six, a decade older than Stevenson. Fanny, at the time was a newly seperated, mother of two.
- 1878: Publishes his first volume entitled, An Inland Voyage, taken from a journal he had penned while canoeing down the French river Oisé, two years before.
- 1879: Stevenson recieves a cable-gram from Fanny in August, who had returned to her husband in California. Stevenson then decides to head for America, arriving first in New York and then making his way to California (nearly losing his life in the process, from fatigue and sickness). This trip inspired him to write the travelogue,The Amateur Emigrant.
- 1880: Fanny obtains a divorce from her husband, and she and Stevenson married on May 7. After a honeymoon trip to Napa Valley, Stevenson penned The Silverado Squatters, which was based loosely on his experiences on the two month trip. In August, the couple returned to Europe.
- 1881-1888: Stevenson's health began to decline due to illness (widely thought to have been tuberculosis), but his literary career was on the rise. During this period Stevenson wrote some of his most memorable works, such as : Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and The Black Arrow (1888).
- 1888: Stevenson and family decide to embark on a trip to the South Seas, in order to restore him physically and emotionally (Stevenson was deeply distressed by his father's death in 87, as well as from a bitter quarell with friend, W. E. Henley).
- 1889: Stevenson finishes The Master of Ballantrae in Honolulu, and the family sails on to Samoa. By this time Stevenson realizes he could not survive the journey back to Scotland, due to the climate changes. Around this time he became increasingly interested in South Sea politics, and the troubles the natives endured due to Western Imperialism.
- 1890: In the South Seas', a book of essays on the islanders was published in London, and was a far cry from his earlier travelogues (with this work focusing more on human nature and politics).
- 1888-1894: Stevenson furthered his craft in the Pacific, writing: The Wrecker (1892), A Footnote to History (1892), Island Nights' Entertainments (1893), and The Ebb-Tide (1894). A Footnote to History was a continuation of his studies on the South Sea natives and their political situation.
- 1894: Robert Louis Stevenson died on December 3, in Samoa. Taken from his poem 'Requiem', the inscription on his tomb reads, "Under the wide and starry sky, / Dig the grave and let me lie...". Stevenson was survived by over 30 published works. 
Class, Tradition, and Money
I was out this evening to call on a friend, and, coming
back through the wet, crowded, lamp-lit streets, was singing
after my own fashion, du hast diamanten und perlen,
when I heard a poor cripple man in the gutter wailing over
a pitiful Scotch air, his club-foot supported on the other
knee, and his whole woebegone body propped sideways
against a crutch. The nearest lamp threw a strong light on
his worn, sordid face and the three boxes of lucifer matches
that he held for sale. My own false notes stuck in my chest.
How well off I am! is the burthen of my songs all day long
– drum ist so wohl mir in der welt! and the ugly reality of
the cripple man was an intrusion on the beautiful world in
which I was walking. (Stevenson, 29-30)
Class: Having been born into a family of civil engineers and lawyers, Stevenson would have been classified as upper middle class or old middle class. This classification included: “Church of England clergymen, military and naval officers, men in the higher-status branches of law and medicine, those at the upper levels of government service… [and] occupations such as architecture and civil engineering” (Mitchell, 21). Higher education, such as the law degree Stevenson obtained from Edinburgh University, would have been exclusive to the upper classes. As Mitchell explains, families such as Stevenson’s who weren’t aristocracy achieved social mobility by sending the next generation to universities; “The wealthiest among them achieved some class mobility in the next generation by sending their sons to prestigious schools and preparing them for a profession” (Mitchell, 21). Stevenson on the other hand, did not live up to the model of the perfect son. His father did not disguise his disappointment in Stevenson’s career decision nor his religious views. Stevenson states in a letter to Charles Baxter; “and do not think I am thus justly to be called ‘horrible atheist. ’Now, what is to take place? What a curse I am to my parents!” (27) Upon the courting of his future wife, Fanny, Stevenson’s family became increasingly frustrated with him. Fanny was considered a “new” American Woman, this coupled with the fact that she had recently separated from her husband, jeopardized the family’s reputation and name. After his trip to California in order to secure his relationship with family, he became “temporarily estranged” from his parents (Teuber). However, once he fell ill and his parents heard of his situation all tensions were forgotten. His father soon began to realize his gift as a writer, and even bought up all copies of The Story of a Lie because he felt it “was beneath his talent” (Teuber).
Despite his upbringing, Stevenson championed the oppressed as can be seen in his South Sea political works. He spoke against Western Imperialism and highlighted the injustices brought upon the natives. Despite the fact that Stevenson came in and out of money, he always retained an air of good upbringing and culture, "I go every night to the theatre, except when there is no opera" (Stevenson,23).
Money:
The reason of my deche? Well, if you begin one house, have to desert it, begin another, and are eight months without doing any work, you will be in a deche too…the money goes, the debt remains (Stevenson, 223-224)
As stated, Stevenson often had money troubles early in his career. There is an instance that after his trip to California and the illness he suffered, his parents had to lend him money to ease his poverty. He is later quoted as saying, “Really, 100 pounds is a sight more than Treasure Is land is worth” (Stevenson, 223). Despite their frequent problems with money early on, as his literary career flourished, the money problems decreased. This is evident by Stevenson’s frequent luxurious traveling in his last years.
Work Life
I can do nothing in the way of work beyond reading books that may, I hope,be
of some use to me afterwards (Stevenson, 46)
Stevenson was relatively well off his whole life. He enjoyed the spoils of belonging to an upper middle class family that supported him and even later in life when they would not, Stevenson opted to be a “starving artist” rather than work. This could be due in part to the fact that he was always weak and sickly. There is evidence though in his letters that in September of 1868, he did work on a boat (Stevenson, 8).
Riddled with chronic sickness, Stevenson was confined to the Stevenson family house, and his regular companions were books. Stevenson began writing early in his childhood, and focused mainly on religious issues. At the age of 16 he had a pamphlet published The Pentland Rising, which explored the murders of the Scottish Presbyterians at the hands royalist prosecutors (Teuber). 
Though Stevenson attended the University of Edinburgh for law and eventually “passed advocate” in 1875, he actually never practiced law (Durry). Stevenson instead decided to put all his energy into developing his craft, being influenced by William Hazlitt, Sir Thomas Browne, Daniel Defoe, Charles Lamp, and Michel de Montaigne (Teuber). He began submitting works to his university’s paper (though the paper wasn’t in publication long). His most noteworthy piece at this time though, was On a New Form of Intermittent Light for Lighthouses. Dealing with the newly introduced “economical combination of revolving mirrors and oil-burning lamps”, he combined with knowledge of engineering and his knack for writing. The Royal Scottish Society of Arts presented him with the society’s Silver Medal after he read it for them in 1871 (Teuber).
During his vacations from school, Stevenson began to travel to such destinations as France and London. He chronicled his experiences and these travels greatly influenced his early writings (which were mainly travelogues). His love for traveling and his experiences gained also fueled much of his later writing.
Science, Technology and the Urban World
The advancement of technology and science took grew at a rapid pace during the Victorian Era. The nineteenth century saw the rise of Darwin, subway trains, telegraphs, steamships and gaslights (to name a few). Stevenson, like other authors of the period, was fascinated with the changes that technology and science brought about in everyday lives.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is probably one of Stevenson’s best known works. The story highlights the interest the Victorian Era had with science and change. By the time Stevenson was writing the book (1885), the age had divided against itself, between the sophisticated and the bestial. This theme becomes prevalent in the book; for Stevenson undermines our notion of what is good and evil with the idea of duality in man. If one studies Jekyll and Hyde the meaning becomes clear: each of us is inherently good, but we also have the primal, bestial urge for evil. This idea owes itself to Darwin’s theories on man’s origins and the primitive nature we encompass.
In addition to Darwin, Stevenson was seemingly influenced by Max Nordau.
Nordau’s book Degeneration (1895), attacked the Victorian “degenerate” and concluded that they threatened the very survival of our species. Hyde, therefore can be seen as a degenerate, in his “contempt for conventional custom and morality” (Guy, 415). Stevenson’s book like Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein also addressed the dark side of progress (i.e. scientists who create monsters). Jekyll’s dalliance with science leads to a doppelganger who threatens to consume his very being and eventually has to be stopped (only done so with the death of Jekyll/Hyde).
Government and Law
Government:
“I am a sort of hovering government official, as you see” (Stevenson, 98)
Though there is little to remark over Stevenson’s dealing with government in Great Britain, after traveling the Pacific, Stevenson became increasingly concerned with Samoan Politics. Trouble was brewing in the South Sea’s during the latter part of the 1800’s. Before this period the Samoans had selected a king by elevating one of their high chiefs, but now the West had become involved in this process. “Because of friction over trade in the islands, Germany, England, and the United States had attempted but aborted a plan to divide the islands into protectorates” (Teuber). By 1888 the Germans had banished one of the three chieftains in contention for kingship; this led to a war between the other two chieftains (which resulted in German casualties). Therefore the Western powers decided to advance Laupepa (the banished chieftain) as king and Mataafa (one of the warring chieftains) as vice-king of Samoa.
Cheif Mataafa
In a Footnote to History, Stevenson supported Mataafa’s right to kingship. Not only did he advocate this in the book, but he also corresponded with British newspapers, championing Mataafa’s claim. This inevitably created controversy and “earned him the resentment of the Germans and threats of deportation from harassed British officials” (Teuber). In 1893 the Germans banished Mataafa, so Stevenson’s cause only resulted in some of Mataafa’s supporters being freed.
“In A Footnote to History Stevenson advocated justice and compromise among the Samoan factions. He wanted to bring the affair before the public, to acquaint Westerners with the effects of imperialistic policies they tacitly supported. Though he apologized for the tempest-in-a-teapot nature of the rebellion, he believed A Footnote to History performed a service for the beleaguered country” (Teuber).
Law:
“I got a little law read yesterday; and some German read this morning, but on the whole there are too many amusements going on for much work” (Stevenson, 29)
As discussed earlier, Stevenson was involved in law early on in his life. Having been born into a family of lawyers and civil engineers, Stevenson was expected to excel in one of these professions. After having abandoned his degree for engineering at Edinburgh University, Stevenson made an agreement with his father and pursued a degree in law. Four years later, Stevenson obtained his law degree and went on to pass the bar. Despite this accomplishment, Stevenson hardly practiced law and it was soon abandoned in favor of his passion…writing.
Stevenson’s background in law has contributed to his writings. It has helped him flesh out the character of Utterson (the narrator of Jekyll and Hyde), who also happens to be a lawyer. He is a character torn and full of dualities (much like Jekyll/Hyde), he was “cold” but “loveable”, he loved the theatre, yet had not “crossed the doors of one for twenty years” (Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1). Utterson, much like Stevenson (as evidenced in his letters), is prone to internal reflection; "and the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded a while in his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there" (Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 42).
It is also interesting to note that Stevenson had visited a leper colony in 1889 (Molokai) on mission to meet Father Damien De Veuster, a missionary.
Stevenson greatly admired the man for his work in the field which he had heard about directly (which opposed the rumors flying about that Veuster was inflicted with leprosy as a result of dalliances with his female patients). Consequently later Stevenson came across an article written about the subject by Dr. Charles Hyde, who proposed the whole thing to be true.
This article apparently irritated Stevenson so much that he wrote, Father Damien: An Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu (1890).
Stevenson did not actually openly deny Hyde’s charges, yet he indicated the publication of such charges by Hyde was cowardly, malicious and based upon envy. Being a lawyer Stevenson no doubt, anticipated a libel suit and possible bankruptcy, yet Hyde dismissed the whole affair. Could Dr. Hyde’s insensitivity towards Father Damien be the inspiration for the dark hearted Mr. Hyde in Stevenson’s famous work?
House, Food and Clothes
House:
“For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;
And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with light,
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him tonight!”
(from A Child's Garden of Verse by Robert Louis Stevenson)
As a member of the middle class, Stevenson lived in a typical grey stone Georgian New Town House in Edinburgh. The house was particularly ornate and was fashioned into 5 stories. Located at 17 Heriot Row, Stevenson grew up in the house from the age of six until his departure to the university. Since his bad health prevented him from attending normal schools, the Stevenson House became the axis of his world. Here he spent much of his time expanding his knowledge through reading and fine-tuning his imagination. It is important to note, that despite the grandeur and respectability of the “Stevenson” house, Robert Louis Stevenson was born in an “unostentatious little stone house on Howard Place” (Harvey, 1).
Clothes:
“And, indeed, bad as his clothes were, and as coarsely as he spoke…” (Stevenson, Treasure Island, 24). This line exemplifies the significance put on appearance in the middle and upper classes. Stevenson, like the rest of his peers, attired himself in the fashions of the times. On a Wednesday, in April 1875, Stevenson relates that despite a swollen eye from infection he is happy because, “I have my fine clothes” (letters,70). Men’s fashion during this period contrasted sharply with the earlier bright colors of the Regency and was on the whole dark and plain. Stevenson while in the city would have been clothed in the traditional garb, trousers, a white shirt, and a black coat; yet while on his travels, his clothes would have been more practical. Interestingly enough, despite his sickness and battles with consumption, Stevenson was known to “light one up”.
Food :
Stevenson's Quotes on Food:
“the rooms are so cheery, and bright and new, and then the food! I never, I think, so fully appreciated the phrase ‘the fat of the land’ as I have done since I have been here installed. There was a dish of eggs at Dejeuner the other day, over the memory of which I lick my lips” (letters,46). - It wasn’t until the 1880’s that the working class had added eggs to their diet.
“this is such a cheap place for food; I used to pay as much as that for my first breakfast in the Savile in the grand old palmy days of yore” (letters, 127). -This quote re-inforces Stevenson’s social standing, only the upper class men during the 1880’s would have dined out.
“ I would have walked half a mile, tired as I felt, for a brandy and soda” (letters, 127).
Family
“it was a dead calm between my father and me” (Stevenson, Letters, 37)
As Sally Mitchell states in Daily Life in Victorian England, “The family influenced one’s economic prospects as well as one’s affections. Many sons took up their father’s occupation” (Mitchell, 142). This was to be the case with Stevenson’s career, having been born into a family of lighthouse engineers (his father Thomas Stevenson was an expert “in optics applied to lighthouse illumination” and his grandfather, Robert Stevenson was the celebrated architect of the Bell Rock lighthouse) (Harvey, 3). Like his father before him, Robert Louis was expected to continue the family practice. This is evident early on in his life, as he began to study the practice; “but he applied himself diligently to holophotal lights and louvre-boarded screens for optical instruments. So great was the paternal influence!” (Harvey, 3). Despite this early apprenticeship, Stevenson decided this wasn’t the profession for him and began to hone his literary craft. His father, disappointed with this, pleaded for Stevenson to reconsider, and in compromise they both decided a law degree would be ideal. Upon completion of law school, Stevenson soon abandoned this and began to focus solely on writing. While Stevenson seems indifferent to his parent’s wishes, their dissatisfaction greatly distressed him, this is obvious from his early letters : “and …worse than death, in the eyes of my father and mother…[a] heavy burden falls on these two” (Stevenson, Letters, 27).
Despite the implications made, Stevenson had a healthy relationship with his parents after he was settled into his writing career. His mother adored him, “she saved practically every scrap of writing he ever sent her” (Harvey, 4).
Education
“I…launched out forthright into Education and Politics and the aims of
one’s life” (Stevenson,Letters, 32).
Stevenson’s “formal” education began early in his life, “at just thirty-six months old, [he] recited: ‘On Linden when the sun was low!’ waving his hand and making a splendid bow at the end” (Harvey, 4). His Nurse-maid Cummie apparently contributed greatly to Stevenson’s education, instilling in him an appreciation for the romantic and imaginative that was not allowed in the Stevenson House. “So firmly was the family face set against certain forms of imaginative recreation that even Louise’s nurse read Cassell’s Family Paper aloud to him with a consciousness of sin” (Harvey, 4). Stevenson’s mother even acknowledges his debt to his nurse maid, saying in her diary it was “Cummie’s teaching” (Harvey, 5). Stevenson even dedicated a book to “Allison Cunnigham”, a person…does not dedicate…to an one without meaning it; and you must just try to take this dedication in place of a great many things that I might have said, and that I ought to have done, to prove that I am not altogether unconscious of the great debt of gratitude I owe you” (letters, 203). Alexander Harvey even goes so far as to surmise, “his nurse not only dedicated his choice of subjects in his famous days, but exercised a decided if not deciding influence upon the evolution of his literary style” (Harvey, 5).
As stated earlier, Stevenson’s frequent bouts of illness prevented his attendance to school, but at the age of seven he was finally able to enter a schoolroom (Harvey, 4). However, once again his illnesses conflicted with any attempt at normalcy and he was forced to discontinue his visits to school. “His most impressionable years were much filled with study of his father’s scientific volumes and inventions” (Harvey, 3). Yet, this interest in engineering was presupposed by an even more intense desire to write. Apparently he always had two books on his person, one to write in and the other to read. As Stevenson came of age he began to travel frequently, his travels led to a competence in French, German, some Latin, a little Greek, and “and unorganized intellectual ferment in his brain of all that he had read and dreamed. With this material he began to build a style, taking for foundation the English of the Covenanting writers read to him by Cummie” (Harvey, 5).
While he attended University in order to obtain a science degree, he was able to study literature as well. At the University of Edinburgh Stevenson found a mentor in Fleeming Jenkins, who despite being fifteen years senior had a “perpetual boyishness” as well as “an insight into just such a temperament as that of Stevenson that made them instant comrades” (Harvey, 8). Stevenson was greatly influenced by Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”, Herbert Spencer, the New Testament, Pepys, and Shakespeare, among many others. “Ah, there was nobody like Shakespeare” (Stevenson, Letters, 186).
Health and Medicine
“I must try to be more cheerful; but my cough is so severe that I have sometimes most exhausting nights and very peevish wakenings” (Stevenson, Letters, 274).
Stevenson’s illnesses have been well documented and speculated about. The most obvious explanation for his infirmity is tuberculosis. Mitchell states that tuberculosis was the principal cause of death in the nineteenth century and was accountable for “one sixth of all deaths in 1838” (Mitchell, 193). Its indicators were “fatigue, weakness, night sweats, loss of appetite, wasting and coughing” (Mitchell, 193).
“I have been very, very sick; on the verge of a galloping consumption, cold sweats, prostrating attacks of cough, sinking fits in which I have lost power of speech, fever, and all the ugliest circumstances of the disease” (Stevenson, Letters, 132).
As a result of his high social standing, Stevenson was able to alleviate some of the symptoms and prolong his life. Mitchell explains, “Rest and a healthy diet helped slow the disease…People who could afford it extended their lives by taking long sea voyages or moving to warmer climates…the South Seas were…popular” (Mitchell, 193).
In 1888, because of his failing health, Stevenson decided to explore the warmer weather of the South Seas (of which he had been intrigued by in his childhood) with his household (Harvey, 13). He navigated the islands of the South Seas, until in 1890 he made his home in Samoa.
“For two days, till last night, I had no night sweats, and my cough is almost gone and I digest well; so all looks good” (Stevenson, Letters, 133).
It is interesting to note that the popular idea during this period was that “bad air” caused disease and as a result most people opted to close off their houses, thereby effectively sealing in airborne bacteria (Mitchell, 190). Stevenson on the other hand, realized the folly in this: “That chimerical terror of unpolluted oxygen, which mad so many…close their windows, list their doors and seal themselves up with their own poisonous exhalations, had aroused Stevenson to protest” (Harvey, 11).
Holidays, Sports and Recreation
Obviously, because of the constant infirmities that plagued him, Stevenson’s life lacked the typical “sport and recreation” others would have enjoyed. Nevertheless he found solace in his writing, it was a way to release his trapped soul. He would frequently write down conversations from memory, he attempted to keep a diary and was known to take walks in which he would create “dramatic dialogues in which he, like a man, played many parts” (Harvey, 6).
“If we didn’t travel now and then, we should forget what the feeling of
life is” (letters, 16).
Stevenson enjoyed traveling and did so throughout his life. He frequented France, Germany, England, and America among other countries. Later in his life, to escape the chill of Europe he began to travel the South Seas. His travels had a profound impact on his writing, enabling him to write such classics as Kidnapped and Treasure Island.
Religion
“What good travelers we are, if we only had faith…my religious organ has been ailing for awhile past” (Stevenson, Letters, 101).
Stevenson grew up in a very religious household. In fact, his grandfather on his mother’s side, Dr. Lewis Balfour (the title doctor at this time meant Doctor of Divinity) was the “parish minister at Colinton” (Harvey, 4). He spent much of his time studying the Bible “and the shorter catechism and the writings of Presbyterian divines.
“You can never be good,” he observed at age four, “unless you pray.” His mother asked him how he knew. “Because,” he replied, “I’ve tried it.” (Harvey, 2)
Religion also played an important part in Stevenson’s literary career. His uncle apparently set up a contest for the younger members of the family to create the best history of Moses. Stevenson immediately took the challenge and presented his version. “It was dictated to his mother during five consecutive Sabbath nights, and won for him a Bible picture book. From that time forward, asserts his mother, it became the heart’s desire of Robert Louis Stevenson to be an author” (Harvey, 2).
“I reserve (as I told them) many points until I acquire fuller information, and do not think I am thus justly to be called ‘horrible atheist’” (Stevenson, Letters, 27).
Around the age of 23, it seems that Stevenson had another clash, this time over religion (Teuber). His father was “loyal to the Church of Scotland” (a Presbyterian church) and was “morbidly conscious of unworthiness in God’s sight” (Harvey, 3). His father found some papers that seemed to indicate Stevenson was an atheist of sorts, and the two had their “worst falling out” (Teuber). It appears though that Stevenson admired Christianity for it’s strengths, yet remained agnostic. A summation of his views can be found in a line from The Ebb-Tide: “They think a parsonage with roses, and church bells, and nice old women bobbing in the lanes, are part and parcel of religion. But religion is a savage thing, like the universe it illuminates; savage, cold, and bare, but infinitely strong” (Stevenson, The Ebb-Tide, Chapter 8).
Morality
“my morality (which I had thought a gem of the first water)” (Stevenson, Letters, 307).
In all accounts Stevenson would have been (for the most part) considered “morally good” for both his period, as well as ours. Born into the upper-middle class he would have acquired a certain sense of moral codes and manners. Education was imperative to the upbringing of a “gentleman” and Stevenson excelled in this degree. He was a model son, even obtaining a law degree, despite his own aversion. He did so only for his duty to his family: “the notion that…Louis should grow into maturity without even a nominal profession – literature being inconceivable as the avowed calling of a respectable person …Robert Louis Stevenson accordingly began to read for the bar” (Harvey, 9). However, his dalliance with Mrs. Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne, a married woman with two children, was not looked highly upon. Despite his parent’s objections, Stevenson courted Fanny and even crossed the Atlantic to do so. “But the Edinburgh youth…consulting neither father nor mother any more, without any consideration of circumstances or consequences…went on board [the] ship” (Harvey, 10). This prompted his father to cut ties (as well as Stevenson’s allowance) for awhile. Upon Fanny’s divorce and their subsequent wedding, his father relented once again and the two made up. “As I look back” he wrote years later, “I think my marriage was the best move I ever made in my life” (Harvey, 10). In relation to our current moral standards, Stevenson’s actions towards his new family would be seen as “morally good”. Stevenson embraced his stepchildren as if they were his own. It appears that Treasure Island came into existence at the suggestion of Lloyd Osbourne, his stepson (Harvey, 10). As was expected during this period, Stevenson also “put the good of the community above personal self-interest” (Mitchell, 270). This is apparent in his dealings with the Samoan government.
England and Empire
“England stands before the world dripping with blood and daubed with dishonour” (Stevenson, Letters, 291).
In relation to Imperialism, Stevenson held England in distaste. He felt their dealings with the natives of the South Seas were repulsive and viewed the Samoans as human beings rather than objects to be fought over.
Stevenson even goes so far as to describe England as a foreign country, despite the fact that Scotland is but a mere stone’s throw away. “I cannot get over my astonishment…at the hopeless gulf that there is between England and Scotland, and English and Scotch. Nothing is the same, and I feel as strange and outlandish here as I do in France or Germany” (Stevenson, Letters, 29). There is a hint of sadness at the state of affairs in England, which he describes as a “political scene of degradation” (Stevenson, Letters, 289).
Bibliography
Durry, Richard. The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson: Life and Works Outline. 1997. 2 Feb. 2007 <http://dinamico.unibg.it/rls/bio.htm>.
Guy, Josephine M. The Victorian Age: An Anthology of Sources and Documents. New York, NY: Routledge, 1998.
Harvey, Alexander. Life of Robert Louis Stevenson. 3 May 20037. 25 Apr. 2007 <http://www.bartleby.com/188/1000.html>.
Mitchell, Sally. Daily Life in Victorian England. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Stevenson, Letters, Sidney Colvin, ed., Tusitala 31 (London: Heinemann, 1924)
Teuber, Andreas. Robert Louis Stevenson Biography. 01 Dec. 2006. 2 Feb. 2007 <http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/stevensonbio.html>.