Tales of the South Seas (Canongate Classic) [Paperback]

Robert Louis Stevenson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001 | Series: Canongate Classic (Book 72)

This collection includes Island Landfalls, The Ebb-Tide, and The Wrecker. Driven to the South Seas by ill health, Stevenson could not close his eyes to the impact of colonialism, the "stirabout of epochs and races, barbarisms and civilisations, virtues and crimes." Setting his imaginative writings within the social and political contexts of his letters and essays from the South Seas, reveals the deepening and broadening of Stevenson's genius and his growing awareness of and anger at white exploitation. It was a society in which his love of adventure, his awareness of the extremes of human nature, and his fascination with good and evil, could find full release. Tales of the South Seas gathers together all of Stevenson's South Sea fiction and a selection of prose and letters provides not only a vivid portrait of a colorful and exotic world, but also a full and rounded picture of a superb writer at the height of his powers. Edited and introduced by Jenni Calder.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born and educated in Edinburgh. He was a sickly child, and most of his adult years were to be spent traveling in search of a climate which would do least damage to his lungs. He began his writing career with essays, short stories, and travel writing, most notably Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879). He went to California to marry in 1880. The journey nearly killed him, but he wrote of his experiences in Across the Plains (1892), The Amateur Emigrant (1895), and The Silverado Squatters (1883). He is, perhaps, best remembered for his first novel Treasure Island (1883), and his early reputation was made with this and other examples of adventure fiction, not least Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which appeared as a paperback thriller in 1886.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Canongate UK (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0862416434
• ISBN-13: 978-0862416430
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,204,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Attention all students of literature!, May 1, 2000

By 

Jack Trammell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales of the South Seas (Canongate Classic) (Paperback)

It wasn't until I had nearly reached the last page of The Wrecker that I realized R.L. Stevenson meant for the book to read as slowly as it did. Though there were sections of high drama, I had struggled with the pace to that point, viewing it as a bit staid or wordy, much more so than other works of his I had read.

In the end, though, I could clearly see his clever intentions. Stevenson's "Tell-Tale" clues indicated that The Wrecker was a response to the jerking, backwards plots of the modern mystery story. Stevenson intentionally slowed the narrative speed, blunted the sharp edges (in contrast to Poe's hard-hitting, most famous stories), and added descriptive eloquence, sometimes blatantly disconnecting it from the plot (in a mixed tribute to Dickens, perhaps). He took the reversed chronology of a murder mystery, and flipped it backwards one more time.

The Wrecker will not be a bestseller in 2000. Nor should it be. It is a masterpiece, however, and will present a remarkable view of the evolution of the modern novel from inside the mind of one of its architects to any student of literature who takes time out to read it.