Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson [Hardcover]

Robert Louis Stevenson (Author), Mr. Ernest Mehew (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300073763 | ISBN-13: 978-0300073768 | Publication Date: February 17, 1998 | Edition: First Edition

During his life Robert Louis Stevenson was celebrated as an author in many different fields of literature. His books - most famously "Treasure Island", and "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" - continue to be read throughout the world. After his death he gained an added reputation as one of our finest letter-writers and in 1994-5, to critical acclaim, Yale University Press published the eight-volume collected edition of letters edited by Ernest Mehew and Bradford A. Booth. Now Ernest Mehew has made selection from a total of nearly 2800 letters to give the flavour of Stevenson's life and character in one volume. This selection prints, in whole or in part, 317 letters that are representative of each period of Stevenson's mature life. we can follow him through his Edinburgh youth and troubled relationship with his parents, his love for a beautiful, married older woman, trips to the Continent in a search for better health and a reckless journey to North America in pursuit of the woman who would become his wife. Always the spirited adventurer, Stevenson's travels eventually took him to the islands of the South Seas where he settled in Samoa, entering into tropical life and the local political scene (at the time verging on civil war) with characteristic fervour. Of the many biographies of Stevenson that exist, none tells the story of his life better than Stevenson's own correspondence. The letters show his zest for life (in the face of atrocious ill-health), his literary tastes, struggles with his own writing and, above all, his love for and relations with his friends. Letters to his mentor Sidney Colvin, fellow writers Henry James and J.M. Barrie, and to his acquantainces kept up from student days show the meaning such friendships held for Stevenson. The correspondence displays his many different sides - at times joking and playful with letters full of world-play, at others emotional and serious.

Editorial Reviews

Review

For all their egocentricity, the letters are intensely alive, rich and comical; no wonder their recipients didn't throw them away. And as Mehew's de-censored edition allows us to see, they are also sometimes enjoyably delinquent, at least by the prim standards imposed by his early editors.... Mehew has made his selection adroitly, as well as with formidable expertise. -- The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Jeremy Treglown

From the Publisher

Listed among the Best Nonfiction of 1998 by the Los Angeles Times Book Review. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (February 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300073763
• ISBN-13: 978-0300073768
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,563,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Henry James enjoyed hearing from RLS and so will you., November 10, 1998

By 

Frank Beck (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson (Hardcover)

Some of the best writers of his time--Henry James, for one--looked forward eagerly to getting letters from Stevenson, as he traveled around the world, looking for a place that might improve his health. (From boyhood on, he suffered from severe lung problems.) Dip into this book at random, and you'll see why. Stevenson put himself into his letters unreservedly--there's a confidential tone of voice throughout them that's warmly appealing--and he is acutely perceptive on a wide range of subjects, including himself. Ernest Mehew has judiciously chosen the best of the letters, and arranged them to create a de facto autobiography. This is a book that every literate person--and particularly anyone interested in nineteenth century literature in English--should have close at hand.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tusitala's Letters, May 26, 2005

By 

Pedro Martins C. Xexeo "A Curious Bibliophile" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson (Hardcover)

The " SELECTED LETTERS OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON " reads like a biography . It's a competent abridgment of Stevenson's correspondence published in eight volumes (1994-95), also by Yale University Press .