R.L.Stevenson on Fiction: An Anthology of Literary and Critical Essays

This new Anthology presents a fascinating range of Robert Louis Stevenson’s essays on fiction. Better known now for the fiction he wrote himself than for his essays on the subject, this material nevertheless provides an illuminating insight in to the thoughts on the craft of writing from one of Scotland’s most famous literary figures. Such writings have hitherto been scattered throughout editions of his collected works; here they are brought together in a new and revealing conjunction. Essays selected include ‘A Humble Remonstrance’, ‘A Gossip on Romance’, ‘Books which have Influenced Me’, ‘A Chapter on Dreams’ and ‘Popular Authors’. They reveal Stevenson’s fascination with the process of creativity and the imagination, his interventions in contemporary debates over realism, his exploration of literary hierarchies, his theories of narrative desire, and the pleasures and influences he derived from his own reading. Glenda Norquay introduces this collection with a broad-ranging discussion of Stevenson’s essay writing. Each essay is also introduced by a brief preface and the highly specific references within the essays are backed up with explanatory notes, making the Anthology accessible to a wide readership.