Customer Reviews

Tales of the South Seas (Canongate Classic)

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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.