Viajes por Hawai

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Travels in Hawaii brings together many of the diverse works from a romantic interlude in the career of this famous writer.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published April 1, 1986

About the author

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.

Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.

Reviews

[Jim]

After reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Vailima Letters, I have become intensely interested in the author's last years in the South Pacific. Travels in Hawaii is a selection of essays, letters, poems, and a journal relating to Stevenson's five-month stay in the islands -- primarily on Oahu, the Big Island, and Molokai -- in 1889, just prior to leaving for Samoa.

The more I read of Stevenson, the more I marvel at the quality of his mind and heart while suffering debilitating periods of ill health that were to finally kill him in 1894. He was a marvel, a hive of activity, and high-quality activity at that, even as his light was on the verge of being put out.

[Bill Myers]

Read this more for RLS source material on Hawaii at the end of the 19th Century, not for an organized history or travelogue of Hawaii.

[Sharon]

Non-fiction shoutout for floundering readers. If you want to search for adventure in new places, read an unlikely travel memoir by an real wordmaster. If you're tired of Dumb, try reading a dusty paperback history languishing on a back shelf of your favorite used bookstore. If you find your vocabulary has shrunk to a few variations of the "f-word," read a little RLS with dictionary at hand.

[Doug Walsh]

The one redeeming aspect of this collection of stories and letters is getting to see RLS use his most proper 19th century English to eviscerate a minister who had besmirched the revered Father Damien of Molokai in a public letter.

[Kara]

I actually haven't read that much of Robert Louis Stevenson's writing (I know, I know, they're on my to-read list) so it's probably a little odd that I started with one of his much lesser-known collections. This book is a record of Stevenson's two trips to Hawaii, told through letters, journal entries, and so on. Stevenson visited during a time of great turmoil in the Hawaiian monarchy, just a few years prior to annexation, so it's interesting to get his impressions and see how they change between trips. However, since this is only the record of one man's brief trips (plus a few letters from his wife as well) the scope of the book is necessarily narrow. It's really more about a unique period in a famous writer's life, one that inspired several of his writings, than about Hawaii itself. Also, even though the introduction lays out Stevenson's itineraries, I still found it hard to follow along with the historical events that underpin his observations, as he often alludes to them only obliquely rather than detailing what is happening.

[Laura]

I really enjoy reading travel writing. This book recounts Robert Louis Stevenson's adventures in Hawaii. He mingles with Hawaiian royalty, goes to visit the leper colony, describes the life of the Polynesians. I found it fascinating but it's was hard for me to read too. Maybe because it was written in 1889? I'm not sure. I recommend the book just know it's not an easy read.