New Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Robert Louis Stevenson – serie

The first scholarly edition of Stevenson’s essays, involving a full and comparative examination of manuscripts, magazine and volume publicationsThese essays, written from 1874 to 1880, established ‘R.L.S.’ as one of the prominent young writers of his time, a provocative and philosophically inclined bohemian playfully offering advice to his post-Darwinian generation about how to find contentment in a society of rigid bourgeois demands. In this first ever scholarly edition, the 1881 text is followed by extensive explanatory notes and the story of the composition and reception of each essay. The volume opens with a full listing of all Stevenson’s essays followed by a substantial introductory discussion of Stevenson’s career as essayist, the characteristics and literary contexts of his essays, and the critical and popular reception of his essays from the 1870s to the present day. The volume Introduction proper then presents the publication history of Virginibus Puerisque, the reception of the book and notable characteristics of the collection taken as a whole: its style and shape, and the aesthetic and ethical vision it presents. Key Features:Introductory overview of Stevenson as essayistComposition and publication history of each essay Publication history of the volume of collected essaysNotes identifying literary references, Stevenson’s idiosyncratic diction, social and historical allusions and cross references to Stevenson’s other works

As Stevenson's most complete exercise in the art of the essay and the last of the 3 volumes of essays whose collection, arrangement and revision he planned and executed in his lifetime, this volume shows the brilliance of his mature style.

A playful, self-reflexive tale of politics and ethics. In Prince Otto, first published in serial form in 1885, Stevenson uses his genius for adventure and romance to explore some decidedly grown-up themes. The tiny German state of Grünewald seems to be a principality of the world of fairy-tale. But its ruler is beset in public by the forces of modern politics, and troubled in private by an unhappy marriage. Ill-prepared to deal with either, Otto is forced to choose between them.Key Features: * This first fully edited edition of the novel will provoke readers to think again about the scope and purpose of Stevenson's brilliant story-telling* Explores the most modern of themes, the moral compromises required by marriage: a romance in which the marriage of the hero and the heroine is not the happy conclusion of the plot, but the problem that the plot has to resolve* A fascinating text for what it tells us about Stevenson's goals and aspirations at this crucial stage of his career, and about the changing nature of the novel in English at the end of the nineteenth-century

Definitive modern edition of Stevenson's intriguing account of his emigration from Scotland to California'The Amateur Emigrant', an autobiographical account of Stevenson's voyage from Scotland to California in 1879, is a rich and provocative work of late-Victorian travel writing and cultural criticism. It describes vividly how Stevenson mixed with 'steerage' passengers aboard an Atlantic steamship and experienced the indignities of a transcontinental emigrant train. 'The Amateur Emigrant' engages critically with Victorian ideas about class, race, and gender, and makes an important contribution to the literature of emigration. Stevenson's middle-class family and friends found the work so transgressive that it was withdrawn from publication at proof stage. It was published in bowdlerized form in 1895 and since then has rarely been available in the form in which Stevenson composed it.Key FeaturesUses the original manuscript as copy text, making available the work as Stevenson originally composed itScholarly introduction situates The Amateur Emigrant in relation to important biographical, critical, historical, social, and generic contexts, and offers a summary of key critical responsesProvides full textual apparatus including variant readings from hitherto unavailable 1880 proofs, textual essay, explanatory notes, and chronologyExciting new visual material including scans of the manuscript and proofs and a map of Stevenson's journey

Explores the detailed evolution of the work through its composition and on to eventual posthumous publicationStevenson’s unfinished masterpiece, Weir of Hermiston, has been entirely re-edited from his final manuscript, revealing a rather different novel from the bowdlerised version produced posthumously by his friends. Stevenson revisits the conflicted Scotland of James Hogg and Sir Walter Scott as well as that of his own youth, but also responds to recently published novels. A substantial essay explores the complex early publication history of the novel on both sides of the Atlantic, and exceptionally full explanatory notes and other background information are provided.Key FeaturesComposition history drawing on draft manuscript material in various US archivesDetailed account of early publication history in UK and USADetails of early reception in UK and USAFull Explanatory Notes including citations from draft manuscript materialHistorical and Geographical Notes