The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 05

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

Rating 4.4
Word count
584K words
Chapters
59

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Portrait GalleryFate and FortuneLiterary GiantsLife PhilosophyPsychological InsightVictorian Era

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. 05 by StevensonAuthor: Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 23, 2009

Editor's review

As Volume 5 of the Swanston Edition of Stevenson's works, this book gathers novels, essays, and other texts by the nineteenth-century Scottish author, and is an electronic presentation of public-domain literary heritage. Its value lies not in textual scholarship or academic annotation, but in giving readers low-cost access to the many-sided range of Stevenson's writing: he could write adventure romance, but was also skilled at moody short fiction and calmly paced essays. Reading this collection offers a sense of the rhythm and diction of Victorian English prose and helps illuminate the early forms of genre fiction. Because it is a Project Gutenberg plain-text ebook, with no modern introduction or notes, it is better suited to readers who already have some experience with English-language originals and are willing to look up background for themselves; it works well for segmented reading on a commute or before bed, but not as an introductory textbook for word-by-word close reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Start by scanning the table of contents and choose pieces that interest you; there is no need to read straight through in order
  2. After each piece, note the plot or theme in a sentence or two for easier review
  3. When you meet unfamiliar words, first infer from context and look them up in a batch afterward
  4. Read alongside a short biography of Stevenson to understand his writing background

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
  16. 16
  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
  58. 58
  59. 59

FAQ

Which specific works does this fifth volume contain? The material identifies it only as Volume 5 of the Swanston Edition and does not list the individual contents. It is advisable to open the ebook's table of contents to confirm what is actually included before deciding whether to read closely or selectively, rather than guessing contents from the title.
Can I read it if my English is average? The text is nineteenth-century English in the original, with long sentences and older diction, so readers with average English will find it fairly demanding. Try a page or two first; if constant dictionary lookup interferes with comprehension, consider an annotated selection or a Chinese translation as a foundation.
What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition? It is a free public-domain ebook prepared by volunteers, usually available in plain text and other formats, convenient for downloading and searching, but without a modern editor's introduction or detailed notes, and with plain typography. It suits independent reading rather than classroom use.

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.