Customer Reviews

The Complete Short Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, With a Selection of the Best Short Novels.

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There is nothing so exciting as a Stevenson novel--Kidnapped, Master of Ballantrae, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde--who can forget them once you've read them? These short stories have the same ability draw you in. The reading is effortless, and Stevenson's backgrounds don't labor with a conscious attempt at reality. They exist for the story and are as true as need be, and not more. From the South Sea to a Medieval City, the variety is pleasing and keeps you reading. Some of the best stories are "The Bottle Imp" (I doubt if a better twist on King Midas has ever been written), "Sire De Maltroit's Door" (A surprisingly good romance than manages, somehow, to skip all the usual elements) and "The Suicide Club" (not half as grim as it sounds, and showing RLS's ability to penetrate human thought).

These stories are highly recommended and aren't something to be read when you are all out of the "good" standard Stevenson--they stand as some of his best works and should be read just for the pure fun of it.

I stumbled upon the short stories of Stevenson kind of by accident, and what a happy accident that was! I can now say that Stevenson wrote both some of my favorite novels and some of my favorite short stories. I haven't gotten around to reading all of his stories yet, but I have loved those that I have read. I can't possibly describe how much I enjoyed Markheim, which is without a doubt my favorite short story of all time. Despite my rather limited reading of Stevenson's short stories, I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone.

Stevenson is one of the great stylists of the English language, and his plots are gripping. Yet this volume is a disappointment. The title is misleading; several of Stevenson's stories have been left out, for no better reason than that the editor says in the introduction that he doesn't like them, and so doesn't find them worthy of inclusion! "Olalla" and "The Treasure of Franchard" are among those that are not in this volume.

Additionally, there is no textual or critical apparatus whatsoever. No explanation of how the editor arrived at definitive versions of the stories; no footnotes to explain difficult dialectal terms or words that have fallen into disuse. This makes some of the tales (notably "Thrawn Janet") very uphill going.

Certainly the stories themselves are wonderful--"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" in particular is a much better read than you'd expect if you know only the movie versions. But get a different edition. I replaced this with The Complete Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Nineteen Other Tales (Modern Library Classics).