World-famous writer, classicist and poet of a wide scale, author of "Treasure Island" and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." This person is among the top thirty authors whose works are often translated in many countries. And this is Robert Louis Stevenson.
Biography of the writer
The future poet was born in the city of Edinburgh in 1850, on November 13th. His parents were people of aristocratic blood - Margaret Isabella Balfour and Thomas Stevenson. Robert was an only child. The entire Stevenson generation worked for a long time in the field of engineering, designing and inspecting lighthouses.
Almost all of his childhood, Robert Stevenson spent next to his grandfather a clergyman. The boy was very sickly, like his mother, he constantly caught a cold. Due to recurring illnesses, he rarely appeared at school, learned to read too late, but the passion for writing appeared in early childhood. He often composed unusual stories that his mother and nannies listened to. In addition, the boy demanded to take notes on everything that he tells. At first, the writing of the son was also to the liking of the father, because he himself was once fond of literature.
In 1867, after graduating from school, Robert entered the University of Edinburgh at the Faculty of Engineering. But the young man was not attracted to technical sciences, he was drawn to communication. During the holidays, Robert Stevenson watched the lighthouses, which his father insisted on. The guy quickly realized that he would not go into the family business.
Writer's path
Active writing Stevenson began in the 70s. First, his stories and stories hit the pages of London print media. The father of the young talent insisted on mastering the technical sciences, but the guy traveled more and more and collected interesting stories around the world. In 1878, the public was able to get acquainted with Robert's first author's diary, in which he described the details of his canoe trip through France and Belgium.
In 1883, Robert Stevenson became a very promising writer. "Treasure Island" is a novel written by him in the same year. Robert moved to Dorset from his native Scotland, where he created two more of his great creations. In 1888, the novel "Black Arrow" was written. In the winter of this year, the Stevenson couple went on vacation to the south of France with their children.
Two years later, Robert managed to build a house on the island of Upolu, which is located in Samoa. In the new place, the writer managed to create three novels, which also gained popularity. The author's only unfinished work was Wear Hermiston, begun in 1894.
In the winter of 1894, Robert Stevenson felt unwell. December 3, the famous writer died suddenly due to a brain hemorrhage. He was buried on Mount Vaea. A large number of people who loved and respected the writer's work were present at the funeral. Stevenson's burial site offers a beautiful view of the ocean.
100 years after the death of the world-famous poet, one of the Scottish banks issued a banknote worth 1 pound, which was signed by Stevenson, his portrait and a quill pen.
Robert Stevenson is considered a legend of classical literature, his manuscripts were sold during the First World War. Now these letters are considered lost.
Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson is a Scottish writer and poet, the author of world-famous adventure novels and short stories, the largest representative of English neo-romanticism.
Born November 13, 1850 in Edinburgh, in the family of an engineer. At baptism, he received the name Robert Lewis Balfour, but in adulthood he abandoned it, changing his surname to Stevenson, and writing his middle name from Lewis to Louis (without changing the pronunciation).
From his youth, Robert was inclined towards technical studies. After graduation, he entered the University of Edinburgh. Having opted for jurisprudence, he received the title of a lawyer, but he hardly ever practiced, since his state of health, on the one hand, and his first successes in the literary field, on the other, convinced him to prefer literature to advocacy. In 1873-1879 he lived mainly in France on the meager earnings of a budding writer and rare money transfers from home, he became his man in the "towns" of French artists. Stevenson's trips to France, Germany and his native Scotland date back to the same period, as a result of which his first two books of travel impressions appeared - An Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels with a Donkey (Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, 1879). Essays written during this period were collected by him in the book Virginibus Puerisque (1881).
In the French village of Greuse, famous for its collections and meetings of artists, Robert Lewis met Frances Mathilde (Vandegrift) Osborne, an American ten years older than him, who was fond of painting. Having parted with her husband, she lived with children in Europe. Stevenson fell in love with her passionately, and as soon as the divorce was obtained, on May 19, 1880, the lovers were married in San Francisco. Their life together was marked by Fanny's vigilant concern for her sickly husband. Stevenson befriended her children, and later his stepson (Samuel) Lloyd Osborne co-authored three of his books: The Wrong Box (1889), The Ebb (The Ebb-Tide. A Trio and a Quartette, 1894) and The Castaways of Soledad (1892).
In 1880 Stevenson was diagnosed with tuberculosis. In search of a salubrious climate, he visited Switzerland, the south of France, Bournemouth and, in 1887-1888, Saranac Lake in New York State. Partly because of ill health, partly to collect material for essays, Stevenson took a yacht to the South Pacific with his wife, mother, and stepson. They visited the Marquesas, Tuamotu, Tahiti, Hawaii, Micronesia, and Australia, and purchased land in Samoa, deciding to settle in the tropics for the sake of economy. He called his possession Vailima (Five Rivers). Striving for the closest communication with the locals, Stevenson took a deep part in their fate and appeared in print exposing the colonial administration - the novel "Eight Years in Danger in Samoa" belongs to this period in his work (A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa, 1893). Stevenson's protest was, however, only a romantic protest, but he was not forgotten by people.
The climate of the island did him good: in the spacious plantation house in Vailima, some of his best works were written. In the same house on December 3, 1894, he suddenly died. Samoan worshipers buried him on top of a nearby mountain. On the tombstone are inscribed the words from his famous "Testament" ("Under the vast starry sky...").
Stevenson's main contribution to literature can be called the fact that he revived the adventure and historical novel in England. But with all the skill of narration, he failed to raise it to the heights on which these genres stood among his predecessors. For the most part, the author was interested in adventure for the sake of adventure, he was alien to the deeper motives of the adventure novel, like Daniel Defoe, and in the historical novel he refused to depict great social events, limiting himself to showing the adventures of heroes for whom history serves only as an accidental background.
The success of Stevenson's famous books is partly due to the fascination of the topics covered in them: pirate adventures in Treasure Island (1883), horror fiction in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , 1886) and children's enthusiasm in A Child's Garden of Verses (1885). However, in addition to these advantages, John Silver's rapid character drawing, syllable density in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, sparkles of irony in Children's flower garden of verses”, testifying to the versatility of his talent.
He began his literary career with essays, extremely valued at that time, written in a relaxed manner, and never betrayed this genre. His articles on writers and the art of writing are A Humble Remonstrance (1884), Dreams (Dreams, 1888), On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature, 1885, and others - bring him closer to Henry James. The travelogues Traveling with a Donkey, The Silverado Squatters (1883) and In the South Seas (1890) masterfully recreate local flavor, and the latter are of particular interest to explorers. Stevenson's obscure literary anecdotes are among the most caustic, witty, and concise in English literature. He wrote poems occasionally and rarely took them seriously.
To penetrate the world of some of Stevenson's works - "Kidnapped" (Kidnapped, 1886) and its sequel "Catriona" (Catriona, 1893), "The Master of Ballantre" (The Master of Ballantrae, 1889), "The Merry Men" (The Merry Men, 1882), "Cursed Janet" (Thrawn Janet, 1881), - the reader will need at least a superficial acquaintance with the language and history of Scotland. Almost all of them - with the exception of "Cursed Janet", a little gem in the ghost story genre - are unevenly written. "Black Arrow" (The Black Arrow, 1883) and "St. Ives" (St. Ives, 1897) can be attributed to the number of obvious failures. "The Extraordinary Luggage" and "The Suicide Club" (The Suicide Club, 1878), as well as the stories that are their continuation (some written in collaboration with Fanny), will not be to everyone's taste. However, "The Beach of Falesa" (The Beach of Falesa, 1892) is one of the best stories ever written about the South Seas, and the island fantasies "The Satanic Bottle" (The Bottle Imp, 1891) and " The Land of Voices (The Isle of Voices, 1893). It is generally accepted that Weir of Hermiston (1896) could have become one of the great novels of the 19th century, but Stevenson managed to finish only a third of the book.
Robert Lewis Stevenson (full name Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson) - Scottish writer and poet, author of adventure novels and short stories, the largest representative of English neo-romanticism - was born on 13 November 1850 in Edinburgh, in the family of a hereditary engineer, a specialist in lighthouses.
He received his secondary education at the Edinburgh Academy, his higher education at the University of Edinburgh, where he first studied as an engineer, received 1871 for the work "A new type of flashing light for lighthouses" a silver medal at the competition of the Scottish Academy, but then moved to the Faculty of Law, from which he graduated in 1875. Having received the name Robert Lewis Balfour at baptism, at the age of 18 he dropped Balfour (mother's maiden name) in his name, and also changed the spelling from Lewis to Louis. The conservative Thomas Stevenson is said to have disliked a liberal named Lewis and decided to write the name of his son (who was almost never called Robert in the family) in French but pronounced in English.
At the age of three, he fell ill with croup, which led to serious consequences. According to most biographers, Stevenson suffered from a severe form of pulmonary tuberculosis (according to E.N. Caldwell, who referred to the opinions of doctors who treated or examined the writer, a severe bronchial disease).
In his youth, he wanted to marry Kat Drummond, a singer from a night tavern, but did not do this under pressure from his father.
The first book, essay “Pentland Rebellion. A Page of History, 1666", a pamphlet published in a print run of one hundred copies at the expense of his father, was published in 1866(Already then Stevenson's great interest in the history of his native Scotland was manifested). In 1873 the essay “The Road” was published, which had a simply symbolic title (despite his illness, Stevenson traveled a lot). Three years later, together with his friend William Simpson, he kayaked along the rivers and canals of Belgium and France. In the French village of Barbizon, which became the center of the Barbizon School of Art, founded by the late Theodore Rousseau, where young English and American artists came to the urban community thanks to the railroad from Paris, Stevenson met Frances (Fanny) Matilda Osborne. This married woman, who was ten years older than Stevenson, was fond of painting and therefore was among the artists. Together with her, a sixteen-year-old daughter (the future stepdaughter Isabelle Osborne, who later wrote Stevenson's works from dictation) and a nine-year-old son (the future stepson and co-author of the writer Lloyd Osborne) came to Barbizon.
Returning to Edinburgh, Stevenson published a book of essays, Inland Journey ( 1878 ). The year before, he had published his first piece of fiction in Temple Bar magazine, the short story "François Villon's Bed and Breakfast". In 1878, while again in France, Stevenson writes the cycles of stories “Suicide Club” and “Diamond of the Raja” united by one hero, which from June to October under the title “Modern One Thousand and One Nights” are published in London magazine. Four years later, a series of stories (under the title "The New Thousand and One Nights") manages to be published as a separate book.
Having finished the stories about Prince Florizel (Florisel, Prince of Bohemia - by the way, one of the heroes of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale"), Stevenson made another trip - to the places where the French Protestants waged a guerrilla war. In June 1879 he published the book "Traveling with a donkey" (the donkey dragging the luggage was his only companion). At the beginning of the 20th century, young writers called this book “A Journey with Sidney Colvin,” disapproving of the way a close friend of the late Stevenson prepared for publication a four-volume edition of the latter’s letters, which he subjected to real censorship.
In August 1879 Stevenson received a letter from California from Fanny Osborne. This letter has not survived; it is assumed that she reported her serious illness. When he arrived in San Francisco, he did not find Fanny there; exhausted by a long and difficult trip, the writer had to go to Monterey, where she moved. May 19, 1880 Stevenson married in San Francisco with Fanny, who managed to divorce her husband. In August, along with her and her children, he sailed from New York to Liverpool. On the ship, Stevenson wrote the essays that made up the book The Amateur Emigrant, and when he returned, he wrote the story The House on the Dunes.
Stevenson has long wanted to write a novel, even tried to start, but all his plans and attempts did not lead to anything. Watching his stepson draw something, his stepfather got carried away and made a map of the invented island. In September 1881 he began writing a novel that he originally wanted to call The Ship's Cook. He read what he wrote to his family. Stevenson's father suggested to his son that Billy Bones' chest and a barrel of apples be included in the book.
When the owner of the children's magazine Young Folks got acquainted with the first chapters and the general idea, he since October began to publish the novel in his magazine (under the pseudonym "Captain George North" and not on the front pages). In January 1882 The publication of Treasure Island ended, but did not bring success to the author. Many indignant letters came to the editorial office of the magazine. The first book edition was published (already under the real name) only in November 1883. The circulation did not sell out immediately, but the success of the second edition, as well as the third, illustrated, was undeniable. "Treasure Island" (Treasure Island) brought Stevenson worldwide fame, became an example of a classic adventure novel. In 1884-1885 Stevenson wrote the historical adventure novel The Black Arrow for Young Folks; the book edition was published in 1888). Stevenson's novel "Prince Otto" (Prince Otto) was released as a book edition in 1885, in the same year, a collection of short stories “And another thousand and one nights” (“Dynamite”) was released.
Stevenson did not take his poems seriously for a long time and did not offer them to publishers. However, having married, returning from the USA to his homeland, he composed 48 poems evoked by memories of childhood, compiled a collection of "Whistles" (Penny Whistles), printed a few copies for friends in the printing house (among Stevenson's friends were Henry James, Scottish writer Samuel Crocket) and stopped there. He returned to poetry a few years later, when he was very ill, revised the collection and released it in 1885 under a different name. The collection has become a classic of English poetry for children. Two years later, Stevenson released a second poetry collection (already for adults) and called it "Underwood" (Underwoods), borrowing this name from Ben Jonson.
In 1885 Stevenson read in French translation the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". The impression was reflected in the story "Markheim", from where it was not far to the fantastic-psychological story "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekill and Mr. Hyde", published in January of the following year.
Already in May, the pages of Young Folks published the first chapters of Kidnapped, a new adventure novel. In the same, 1886 published a book edition. The protagonist of "Kidnapped" is David Balfour (a memory of maternal ancestors who, according to family tradition, belonged to the MacGregor clan, like Walter Scott's Rob Roy).
In 1887 a collection of short stories "The Merry Men, and Other Tales" was published, which included stories 1881-1885 years, including "Markheim" and the very first of the Scottish stories, "Cursed Janet".
The following year, Stevenson and his family set off to travel the South Seas. At the same time he was writing the novel "The Possessor of Ballantre", which was published in 1889(The Master of Ballantrae).
From 1890 Stevenson lived in Samoa. Then came the collection "Ballads".
On the islands of Samoa, a collection of stories was written "Evening conversations on the island" (Island Night's Entertainments, 1893 ), the continuation of the "Kidnapped" "Catriona" (Catriona, 1893 , in a magazine publication - "David Balfour"), "St. Ives" (St. Ives, completed after Stevenson's death by Arthur Quiller-Kuch, 1897 ). All of these (as well as previous) novels are distinguished by a combination of exciting adventurous plots, deep insight into history and subtle psychological study of characters. Stevenson's last novel, Weir of Hermiston, 1896 ), which the author counted on as his best book, remained unfinished.
Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson is a Scottish writer and poet, the author of world-famous adventure novels and short stories, the largest representative of English neo-romanticism.
Born November 13, 1850 in Edinburgh, in the family of an engineer. At baptism, he received the name Robert Lewis Balfour, but in adulthood he abandoned it, changing his surname to Stevenson, and writing his middle name from Lewis to Louis (without changing the pronunciation).
From his youth, Robert was inclined towards technical studies. After graduation, he entered the University of Edinburgh. Having opted for jurisprudence, he received the title of a lawyer, but he hardly ever practiced, since his state of health, on the one hand, and his first successes in the literary field, on the other, convinced him to prefer literature to advocacy. In 1873-1879 he lived mainly in France on the meager earnings of a budding writer and rare money transfers from home, he became his man in the "towns" of French artists. Stevenson's trips to France, Germany and his native Scotland date back to the same period, as a result of which his first two books of travel impressions appeared - An Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels with a Donkey (Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, 1879). Essays written during this period were collected by him in the book Virginibus Puerisque (1881).
In the French village of Greuse, famous for its collections and meetings of artists, Robert Lewis met Frances Mathilde (Vandegrift) Osborne, an American ten years older than him, who was fond of painting. Having parted with her husband, she lived with children in Europe. Stevenson fell in love with her passionately, and as soon as the divorce was obtained, on May 19, 1880, the lovers were married in San Francisco. Their life together was marked by Fanny's vigilant concern for her sickly husband. Stevenson befriended her children, and later his stepson (Samuel) Lloyd Osborne co-authored three of his books: The Wrong Box (1889), The Ebb (The Ebb-Tide. A Trio and a Quartette, 1894) and The Castaways of Soledad (1892).
In 1880 Stevenson was diagnosed with tuberculosis. In search of a salubrious climate, he visited Switzerland, the south of France, Bournemouth and, in 1887-1888, Saranac Lake in New York State. Partly because of ill health, partly to collect material for essays, Stevenson took a yacht to the South Pacific with his wife, mother, and stepson. They visited the Marquesas, Tuamotu, Tahiti, Hawaii, Micronesia, and Australia, and purchased land in Samoa, deciding to settle in the tropics for the sake of economy. He called his possession Vailima (Five Rivers). Striving for the closest communication with the locals, Stevenson took a deep part in their fate and appeared in print exposing the colonial administration - the novel "Eight Years in Danger in Samoa" belongs to this period in his work (A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa, 1893). Stevenson's protest was, however, only a romantic protest, but he was not forgotten by people.
The climate of the island did him good: in the spacious plantation house in Vailima, some of his best works were written. In the same house on December 3, 1894, he suddenly died. Samoan worshipers buried him on top of a nearby mountain. On the tombstone are inscribed the words from his famous "Testament" ("Under the vast starry sky...").
Stevenson's main contribution to literature can be called the fact that he revived the adventure and historical novel in England. But with all the skill of narration, he failed to raise it to the heights on which these genres stood among his predecessors. For the most part, the author was interested in adventure for the sake of adventure, he was alien to the deeper motives of the adventure novel, like Daniel Defoe, and in the historical novel he refused to depict great social events, limiting himself to showing the adventures of heroes for whom history serves only as an accidental background.
The success of Stevenson's famous books is partly due to the fascination of the topics covered in them: pirate adventures in Treasure Island (1883), horror fiction in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , 1886) and children's enthusiasm in A Child's Garden of Verses (1885). However, in addition to these advantages, John Silver's rapid character drawing, syllable density in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, sparkles of irony in Children's flower garden of verses”, testifying to the versatility of his talent.
He began his literary career with essays, extremely valued at that time, written in a relaxed manner, and never betrayed this genre. His articles on writers and the art of writing are A Humble Remonstrance (1884), Dreams (Dreams, 1888), On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature, 1885, and others - bring him closer to Henry James. The travelogues Traveling with a Donkey, The Silverado Squatters (1883) and In the South Seas (1890) masterfully recreate local flavor, and the latter are of particular interest to explorers. Stevenson's obscure literary anecdotes are among the most caustic, witty, and concise in English literature. He wrote poems occasionally and rarely took them seriously.
To penetrate the world of some of Stevenson's works - "Kidnapped" (Kidnapped, 1886) and its sequel "Catriona" (Catriona, 1893), "The Master of Ballantre" (The Master of Ballantrae, 1889), "The Merry Men" (The Merry Men, 1882), "Cursed Janet" (Thrawn Janet, 1881), - the reader will need at least a superficial acquaintance with the language and history of Scotland. Almost all of them - with the exception of "Cursed Janet", a little gem in the ghost story genre - are unevenly written. "Black Arrow" (The Black Arrow, 1883) and "St. Ives" (St. Ives, 1897) can be attributed to the number of obvious failures. "The Extraordinary Luggage" and "The Suicide Club" (The Suicide Club, 1878), as well as the stories that are their continuation (some written in collaboration with Fanny), will not be to everyone's taste. However, "The Beach of Falesa" (The Beach of Falesa, 1892) is one of the best stories ever written about the South Seas, and the island fantasies "The Satanic Bottle" (The Bottle Imp, 1891) and " The Land of Voices (The Isle of Voices, 1893). It is generally accepted that Weir of Hermiston (1896) could have become one of the great novels of the 19th century, but Stevenson managed to finish only a third of the book.
Wikipedia has articles about other people named Stevenson, Robert. Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson ... Wikipedia
Stevenson. Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour (Stevenson, Robert L.) (1850 1894) English neo-romantic writer. Aphorisms, quotes Stevenson Robert Louis. Stevenson. Biography. We have no obligation that we would so underestimate as the obligation ... ... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms
Stevenson Robert Lewis (11/13/1850, Edinburgh - 12/3/1894, Upolu Island, Samoa), English writer. Scottish by birth, the son of an engineer. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Edinburgh (1875). Traveled a lot.... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Stevenson, Robert Lewis- STE/WENSON Robert Lewis (1850 1894) English writer of nautical adventure novels. Scottish by origin. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Edinburgh (1875). Lived in Belgium, France, California, traveled to ... ... Marine Biographical Dictionary
- ... Wikipedia
Stevenson Robert Lewis- (1850 1894) English novelist and poet ... Dictionary of literary types
Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson Birth name: Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson Date of birth: November 13, 1850 Place of birth ... Wikipedia
- (Stevenson) Robert (1772-1850), Scottish civil engineer who specialized in the construction of LIGHTHOUSES. In total, he designed and built 23 lighthouses, as well as light signaling systems. According to his projects, canals and ports were built. Son … Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary
Books
- Robert Louis Stevenson. Collected Works in 8 Volumes (set of 8 books), Robert Louis Stevenson. The collection presents the works of the famous English writer Robert Louis Stevenson about adventures that have become companions of many generations of readers. Nobility and generosity…
- Robert Louis Stevenson. Small Collected Works, Robert Lewis Stevenson. Numerous works of Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous English writer, literary critic, poet, founder of neo-romanticism, occupy a firm place among the masterpieces ...
