The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 04

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
566K words
Chapters
57

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Suspense ThrillerAdventure JourneyFate and FortuneUrban RomanceHuman NaturePsychological InsightMoral DilemmaNarrative ProseCollected WorksShort Stories

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 04 by StevensonAuthor: Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 17, 2009

Editor's review

This volume is Volume 4 of the Swanston Edition of Stevenson's collected works, a free English ebook from Project Gutenberg. The strength of a multi-volume collected works is that it preserves the original editorial arrangement, helping researchers see how Stevenson's works across genres were organized into a set; for general readers, however, it lacks an anthology-style introduction and recommended contents, so they must decide for themselves where to begin. The electronic text is suitable for searching keywords, comparing different editions, or excerpting quotations, and is convenient for reading in segments on mobile devices. Because the available information does not specify the contents of this volume, be sure to check the table of contents before use. Overall, it is better suited to readers who already have a clear reading goal and are accustomed to reading English originals than to those new to Stevenson.

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Reading tips

  1. After downloading, read the table of contents and the volume's preface first to determine the genre distribution before planning how to read.
  2. Read by genre groups, for example narrative works first, then essays or critical pieces.
  3. Mark unfamiliar allusions as you go and look them up together in literary histories or reference works.
  4. If doing edition research, compare passages with other standalone editions of the same works.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
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  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57

FAQ

What is the difference between Volume 4 and Volume 21? Both belong to the Swanston Edition collected works, but they are different volumes and contain different works. The available information does not list their specific contents, so it is impossible to judge differences in genre or theme; it is advisable to check the tables of contents of both volumes before deciding the reading order.
On what devices can this book be read? Project Gutenberg provides several ebook formats, usually readable on computers, tablets, phones, and e-readers. The specific formats depend on what is offered on the download page; plain text or EPUB formats generally have good compatibility.
Why is there no content summary or annotation? This is an electronic reprint of a public-domain collected works, mainly preserving the original text without modern publisher introductions, annotations, or reading guides. Readers need to consult external sources for background or judge the contents from the table of contents themselves.
Is it suitable for preparing book club discussions? Yes, but only if the facilitator first confirms the contents of this volume and selects the text for discussion. Since there is no reading guide, it is advisable to distribute a list of contents and background materials in advance; otherwise participants may find it hard to focus because of inconsistent editions and contents.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 Author

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) was a nineteenth-century British writer known for adventure fiction and poetry. His representative work Treasure Island established a classic model for treasure-hunt adventure stories and has circulated widely in many translations; the library also holds the Spanish version La isla del tesoro and the German version Die Schatzinsel: Roman. Another representative work, A Child's Garden of Verses, writes from a child's perspective about play, imagination, and everyday feelings, with fresh language and natural rhythm, and is a common reader in English children's poetry. The library holds as many as 101 of his works, showing the variety of his subjects and forms. Public information is limited, so details of his life and education are not elaborated here; overall, his writing combines thrilling narrative with a lyrical tone, being strongly story-driven yet readable aloud, and has had a lasting influence on later adventure literature and children's literature.