Louis: A Life of Robert Louis Stevenson
- ISBN-10
- 1566633435
- ISBN-13
- 9781566633437
- Series
- Louis
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography / General
- Pages
- 336
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2001
- Publisher
- Ivan R. Dee
- Author
- Philip Callow
Description
There are many Stevensons behind the initials RLS, but the one that has endeared him to readers for so long is surely the fighter, battling to stay alive. Jorge Luis Borges described his brief life as courageous and heroic. In Philip Callow's absorbing new biography, one can see why. Doctors, called repeatedly to what should have been his deathbed, would find a scarecrow, twitching and alive. A sickly child, Louis became in turn a bohemian dandy, a literary gypsy traipsing through the mountains of France with a donkey, and at twenty-eight the lover of an American woman ten years his senior, the fabulous Fanny. He escaped his Scottish town, his family, his friends who had mapped out a literary career for him in London, and instead went chaotically across the Atlantic and overland to California in poverty and despair to reach his beloved, whereupon he escaped into marriage and committed himself to being a nomad. He sailed the Pacific and dreamed of being an explorer; his restlessness was Victorian. With the power of a novelist and the grace of a poet (of which he is both), Philip Callow captures this great writer and his many contradictions. He was a born exile longing for home; a northerner who thrived on tropic sunshine; a near atheist who organized Sunday services for his Samoan workers. He has been called Scotland's finest writer of English prose, a more economical Walter Scott. As an essayist he equaled Hazlitt. In emotional crises he wept openly, to the embarrassment of his wife. "His feelings are always his reasons," said Henry James, and caught in a sentence the secret of Stevenson's popularity as one of the last of the classic storytellers. Louis brings him alive. With 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Louis Austin and the Carolina Times: A Life in the Long Black Freedom Struggle
By Jerry Gershenhorn... 192, 193, 206 Black press, 62, 65,70–72, 87, 89, 127, 183–84, 197, 217–18n12, 230n130, 243n67. See also names of specific newspapers Black Solidarity Committee for Community Improvement (BSC), 203–5 Bledsoe, Maxine, 143 Bloc voting, ...
-
Louis the Fish
By Arthur YorinksMaurice Sendak greeted the publication of the first book by this unique author-and-artist team with an astonishing review in The New York Times Book Review, which began: "Sid and Sol is a wonder--a picture book that heralds a hopeful, ...
-
Versailles: From Louis XIV to Jeff Koons (Special Edition)
By Catherine Pegard, Mathieu da VinhaLavishly illustrated with archival images and beautiful photography, Versailles: From Louis XIV to Jeff Koons features insightful texts by Catherine Pégard, president of the Château de Versailles, with the collaboration of Mathieu da ...
-
Louis I, King of the Sheep
By Olivier TallecLouis I, King of the Sheep is a funny philosophical fable about a sheep who finds a crown, and revels in dreams of power.
-
Louis LÕAmour on Film and Television
By Ed AndreychukIn Guns of the Timberland, opponents Alan Ladd and Lyle Bettger find themselves fighting together to stop a raging fire. ... of films with another rising young star of the '50s, Robert Wagner, 1953's Beneath the 12-Mile Reef(co-starring ...
-
Back to Pentecost: Awakening the Church to the Spirit that Launched It
By Peter LouisIn this book you will: - Be given a strong biblical framework- Be challenged with insight from the word of God- Be invited to experience the Holy Spirit's BaptismThis powerful work by Peter Louis also answers common misconceptions and ...
-
A Horn for Louis: Louis Armstrong - as a kid!
By Eric A. Kimmel. . . With messages about hard work, persistence, hope, tolerance, cooperation, trust, and friendship, A Horn for Louis is perfect for aspiring young musicians and nonfiction fans alike!
-
The Day Louis Got Eaten
By John FardellWhen Louis gets eaten up by a Gulper, his big sister Sarah knows she has to act fast, and she sets off in hot pursuit.
-
Saint Louis Seen and Unseen
By Michael KilfoyA collection of photographs depicting various aspects of St. Louis, both the well-known and the overlooked.
-
Passin' Through (Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures): A Novel
By Louis L'AmourPassin' Through is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, ...