The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 22

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

Rating 3.9

Word count: 519K words
Chapters: 52

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. 22 by StevensonAuthor: Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 16, 2010

Editor's review

This volume is Volume 22 of the Swanston Edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's works, released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain ebook. Stevenson is known for Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and other works; his writing spans fiction, poetry, travel writing, and essays, with a concise style rich in imagery. As one volume of a collected edition, its value lies in presenting a segment of the author's creative lineage, suitable for readers who already have some familiarity to work through volume by volume and fill out their sense of his overall profile. In reading such a volume of a collected edition, the point is not the completeness of any single piece but experiencing the author's movement across different genres and subjects, and catching a sidelight on Victorian literary taste. Since the electronic edition contains no modern editorial introduction, readers may extend their reading on their own with Stevenson's biography and the background of his time. Note that the contents of the volumes are independent of one another, and without reference to adjacent volumes, the background information for some pieces may seem thin.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have read Stevenson's major works and want to read through his collected works systematically
Scholars and students of Victorian literature who need original textual material
Literature lovers who enjoy essays, travel writing, and short forms and prefer slow, attentive reading
Readers who need free public-domain English texts for teaching or excerpting

Not a good fit for

Readers who only want famous works such as Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and do not wish to explore other volumes of the collected works
Beginners who want modern scholarly annotations and detailed introductions
Readers unaccustomed to nineteenth-century English style who prefer contemporary narrative

Reading tips

First browse the volume's table of contents and read in groups by genre or theme, rather than plowing straight through.
Read alongside a Stevenson biography or background material on his era to make up for the annotations the electronic edition lacks.
When you come to essays or travel pieces, slow down and attend to the observational angle and the rhythm of the language.
If reading for research, consult other volumes as well to grasp the place of the works within the collected edition.

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.

FAQ

Which specific works does this volume contain?

This is Volume 22 of the Swanston Edition of Stevenson's collected works; the specific pieces should be determined by the table of contents in the electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg. Since the electronic edition has no modern content summary, readers are advised to open the file and check the table of contents first before deciding on a reading order, rather than guessing the contents from the volume number.

Can I read this without having read other works by Stevenson?

You can, but the experience will be diminished. Volumes of collected works often include letters, essays, unpublished manuscripts, or pieces less often reprinted separately; without an understanding of the author's overall output, it is hard to judge their value and place. It is advisable to read one or two major works first before entering the volumes of the collected edition.

Is the Gutenberg edition suitable for scholarly citation?

The Gutenberg edition is based on public-domain texts and can be used for general reading, teaching excerpts, and preliminary research. But the electronic edition contains no textual notes or modern editorial annotations, so for scholarly citation involving a specific edition or textual collation, authoritative print or academic database editions should still be checked.

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.