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R.L.S.: A Life Study
In this biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, Jenni Calder sets out to explore the shaping factors of a life whose ambivalence produced such masterpieces as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Weir of Hermiston.
Growing up in the second half of the nineteenth century, Stevenson rebelled against the restrictive morality of his parents' generation, and found the Calvinism of his own city of Edinburgh both damaging and compelling. But he was never merely a rebel.
Hampered by respiratory illnesses that kept him an invalid for long periods, and often by personal difficulties, he struggled constantly to maintain his unconventional but highly scrupulous way of life. Steven has sometimes been remembered chiefly as a writer for children, but he was also a prolific essayist, poet and novelist with a special feeling towards the land of his birth. Most of his life was a necessary exile in France, the United States and the South Pacific, far from his beloved Scotland which was the inspiration for so much of his work.
Growing up in the second half of the nineteenth century, Stevenson rebelled against the restrictive morality of his parents' generation, and found the Calvinism of his own city of Edinburgh both damaging and compelling. But he was never merely a rebel.
Hampered by respiratory illnesses that kept him an invalid for long periods, and often by personal difficulties, he struggled constantly to maintain his unconventional but highly scrupulous way of life. Steven has sometimes been remembered chiefly as a writer for children, but he was also a prolific essayist, poet and novelist with a special feeling towards the land of his birth. Most of his life was a necessary exile in France, the United States and the South Pacific, far from his beloved Scotland which was the inspiration for so much of his work.
382 pages, Paperback
First published April 6, 1980
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About the author
Jenni Calder
62 books3 followersScottish literary historian and novelist Jenni Calder (née Daiches) was born in Chicago in 1941, but has lived and worked in Scotland since 1971. She was formerly married to Scottish critic Angus Calder, and is the daughter of literary historian David Daiches.
Jenni Calder writes novels and poetry under the name Jenni Daiches.
Jenni Calder writes novels and poetry under the name Jenni Daiches.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 21, 2023
Despite being now over forty years old, Jenni Calder's biography of Stevenson retains interest as a balanced and crisply-written account of its subject, his life and major works, but also as a document of its time with its twentieth-century assumptions about psychology, religion, and colonialism.
October 12, 2020
It took me a long time to read this as there is a lot to digest and it's a very large book! But I was thoroughly entertained as RLS is one of my all-time favourite authors. Highly recommended for fans of his work and an astonishing insight into the author's life. I loved this. It'll stay on my shelf forever.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews