Robert Louis Stevenson, página 14 de 78

One of literature's best-loved adventure stories, Treasure Island's timeless tale of pirates, lost treasure maps, mutiny and derring-do has appealed to generations of readers ever since Robert Louis Stevenson penned it for his stepson in 1881 with the claim, "If this don't fetch the kids, why, they have gone rotten since my day." Children of all ages, not to mention their parents, delight in cabin boy Jim Hawkins and the treasure hunt he undertakes in this rollicking narrative of cliff-hanging adventure. But more than a children's classic, the novel lays claim to being one of the greatest feats of storytelling in the English language, with characters such as the unforgettable Long John Silver becoming part of the cultural consciousness. Stevenson's most famous and enduringly popular work, "Treasure Island" is a coming-of-age story that will captivate both adults and children for as long as stories are told.

“La novela nos envuelve en una atmósfera angustiosa. Sin diablos ni fantasmas, Stevenson convierte lo cotidiano en insólito y apuntala el enrarecimiento con descripciones de un Londres brumoso, de ca

En estos maravillosos poemas, R. L. Stevenson navega por los mares de la imaginación, invoca los fantasmas y los miedos de un niño y evoca la magia de las lecturas y los juegos infantiles.

En aquests meravellosos poemes, R. L. Stevenson navega pels mars de la imaginació, invoca els fantasmes i les pors d?un nen i rememora la màgia de les lectures i els jocs infantils.

Il romanzo "L''isola del tesoro" (1883) venne inizialmente pubblicato a puntate su un giornale per ragazzi e solo successivamente fu stampato in volume. Al suo debutto l''opera fu stroncata. Stevenson scrisse queste righe in risposta alla stroncatura: "Non e mai esistito un bambino (fatta eccezione per il signor James) che non abbia cercato oro, non sia stato pirata o capitano di soldati o bandito di montagna; che non abbia mai fatto battaglie, non sia naufragato e non sia stato fatto prigioniero, e non abbia bagnato di sangue le sue piccole mani, o che bravamente non si sia ritirato da una battaglia perduta e che infine, con manifesto orgoglio, non abbia protetto l''innocenza e la bellezza".

En 1876, un joven Robert Louis Stevenson y su amigo Walter Simpson se embarcaron en una expedición por los canales de Bélgica y del norte de Francia. El periplo, en dos balandros llamados Cigarette y Arethusa, se inicio en Amberes el 25 de agosto y termino en Pontoise, en los alrededores de Paris, a mediados de septiembre.En una epoca en que viajar por placer en un medio de transporte tan incomodo era un hecho inusitado, Stevenson y su amigo decidieron emprender una travesia que resultaria desastrosa de todas todas, ya desde un principio: con frecuencia los tomaran por vendedores ambulantes e incluso por espias, les negaran el pan y el alojamiento y tendran que sufrir las inclemencias del tiempo. Solo el humor les ayudara a superar las adversidades.Con una prosa directa a la vez que divulgadora, el autor se entrega a la descripcion del paisaje y de las costumbres de los lugareños con humor. Stevenson traza el retrato de un tiempo y de un lugar en la que viajar estaba solo al alcance de unos pocos y, sin que casi nos demos cuenta, deja caer reflexiones, ideas, apuntes que van calando en el animo del lector y que luego, a final, se revelan como lo que son: paginas llenas de vida y de gran literatura."Por mi parte, al deslizarme por esa via movil a bordo de la funda de violin que era mi balandro tambien empezaba a cansarme de mi oceano. Al hombre civilizado tarde o temprano le sobreviene el deseo de la civilizacion. Estaba ya cansado de darle al remo, harto de vivir en las afueras de la vida; empece a tener ganas de volver a la refriega, de ponerme a trabajar, de conocer a personas que entendieran mi lengua y me recibieran en terminos de igualdad, que vieran en mi un hombre, no una simple curiosidad."

El clásico de Robert Louis Stevenson, ahora en cómic

Mr. Henry James, speaking of the quarrel between Alan Breck and David Balfour in Kidnapped, declares that he knows of " few better examples of the way genius has ever a surprise in its pocket keeps an ace, as it were, up its sleeve." And in Weir of Hermiston we have a surprise of an even higher order from Stevensons pocket; that pocket which during his lifetime seemed like the proverbial small boysalmost inexhaustible, stuffed full of a delightfully heterogeneous mass, sometimes of jingling trinkets, and sometimes of the oddest and rarest treasures. It may seem rash to declare a half-finished and half-revised book the greatest achievement of an author who had so high a passion for finality as Stevenson, but many will unhesitatingly declare Weir of Hermiston Stevensons best book.

This volume includes the collected letters of the well-known author. Hundreds and hundreds of writings are included, divided into the following sections:Letters From SamoaLetters To Young PeopleStudent Days At EdinburghAdvocate And AuthorThe Amateur EmigrantAlpine Winters And Highland SummersThe Riviera AgainMarseilles And HyeresLife At BournemouthThe United States Again; Winter In The AdirondacksPacific VoyagesLife In Samoa

The sequel to Kidnapped, written after an interval of six years, marks, as is pointed out in the chapter on the former work, a notable development of Stevensons powers. In Kidnapped the Appin murder is a mere ghmpse ; in Catriona the story is deeply involved with the trial which followed it and with the personages which figured in this piece of the aftermath of the 45 in the Highlands. It is historical in a much larger measure and closer relation than the tale of which it is the continuation ; it depends so much less on the element of excitement, and so much more on its drawings of people, that the two scarcely make a homogeneous work.

Eine historische Abenteuernovelle um den jungen David Balfour, der für die Unschuld eines anderen kämpft und sich dabei in die schöne Catriona verliebt.

The title of the volume which includes The Beach of Falesa, The Bottle Imp, and The Isle of Voices. The Beach turns on the native dread of the spirit-devils in the woods, interwoven with which is the island life of natives and whites viewed through the eyes of a commonplace trade. It is a picture of the South Seas, very different from the idylls of Hermann Melville. In The Bottle Imp, the protagonist buys a bottle with an imp inside that grants wishes. However, the bottle is cursed; if the holder dies bearing it, their soul is forfeit to hell. The Isle of Voices is a fairytale of magic treasure.

The only book of Stevensons written in collaboration with his wife, to whose powers of invention and descriptive writing the greater part of it is due. It had its origin at the time of his slow and perilous recovery from the nearly fatal illness at Hyeres in the spring of 1884. Forbidden to speak and under orders to lie in darkness, the long hours were relieved by tales which Mrs. Stevenson made up for his amusement. A few months afterwards, when they had settled at Bournemouth, where Louis was to live the life of a delicate girl, these stories were drawn upon as material for a series planned on the lines of the New Arabian Nights of six years before. Though the form is broadly the same a set of interdependent narratives over which the long arm of coincidence was never more widely waved the style is notably different from that of the previous series. This is explained by the fact that only the prologue and epilogue and the tale of "The Explosive Bomb" are Stevensons own writing. All the rest of the book was the invention, and the actual writing of Mrs. Stevenson ; her husbands share in it consisting apparently in revisions and touches by which he was able with great facility to impress a large measure of his own style upon his wifes work.

Stevensons title for these tales of imagination clearly shows what he intended their character to be. Plainly they were not meant to be realistic. Their stilted, artificial style is out of keeping with such an object. They were evidently to be stories which are entertaining in the same way that the "Arabian Nights" is entertaining, with just as little pretence of realism. As a child in his grandfathers manse at Colinton he had devoured the eastern tales; the New Arabian Nights, written when he was twenty-eight, are a special form of literary invention which came easily from Stevensons habit of investing the most ordinary places and people with the wildest romance. The stories are peculiar in that their artificial style leaves one ungripped by the horror of adventure, such as those of The Suicide Club. But the artificiality was clearly deliberate; when he wanted, no one better than Stevenson could write tales of horror to make the flesh creep. He did in fact project a series of this kind, of which only one or two were completed. But in the New Arabian Nights it is easy to see his precise aim at a lighter effect. No doubt the pleasure in the technical problem at once Stevensons curse, and the source of his unequalled prose prompted this experiment.

This edition contains the whole of Mr. Stevensons poetical works, divided into the following sections:A Childs Garden Of VersesThe child aloneGarden DaysEnvoysUnderwoodsBalladsSongs Of TravelAddition