Robert Louis Stevenson The adventurer of literature

Summary R. L. Stevenson WorksBiography Themes Victorian Critics Autobiographycal works Fantastic & adventure Childhood Psichology Double Literature Conceptions

Biography Birth in Edinburgh 1850 in a Calvinist family Contact with evolutionism, rejection toward the Victorian world Poor health: travels to find a better climate In France he knows Fanny Osborne Travel to America with Fanny Voyage in the South Pacific Ocean Death in Samoa in 1894

Robert vs Society Criticisms to religion and Victorian respectability The Origin of Species - (1859) C.Darwin Mistrust in science and social structure Long Depression Adversity to colonialism Experiences in Philippines

Autobiographical Essays Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes An Inland voyage The Silverado Squatters The Beach of Falesa In the South Seas Great curiosity and sensitivity of Stevenson Exotic themes as reaction to Victorian Age

Novel and Tale: Adventure and Fantastic Treasure Island – 1883 Kidnapped The New Arabian Nights Marked psycholgical characterization Regaining a child’s imagination and innocence through the fantastic narration

“The child is father to the man” Child’s Play – 1882 A Child’s Garden of Verses Childhood experiences’ influence in all his production: sorrow, fantasy, dreams, adventurous approach. Importance of children’s game-playing in the choice of themes to deal with

Psichology: from child to adult Taking care of the psychological growth of characters. Main characters: young men reaching their maturity through their adventures and experiences. Importance of adults able to keep alive their childish naivety.

Psychological travel Jekyll’s research and experiments: representation of the artist’s journey into unexplored regions of human psyche.

Double – Chapter 1 The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Introduction of the theme of double nature of men’s souls. Duality reflected by physical appearences. Social level of interpretation: Victorian exterior respectability and its hidden “dark side”.

Double - Chapter 2 Master of Ballantrae Everything completed by its opposite. Impossibility to exist without the contrary: if one reneges, necessary its double disappears.

Double in Classic Literature Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior. Catullo – Carme 85 Constant duality of sentiments mingled together in a unique personality affected by love

Double in Music Beethoven – Opus Three Stages: –Violin conformed to the orchestra –Attempt of escaping from the imposed limits: birth of duality –Creation of a new different harmony

Double in art Magritte La Condition Humaine 1933 “C'est ainsi que nous voyons le monde, nous le voyons à l'extérieur de nous-mêmes et cependant nous n'en avons qu'une représentation en nous “ R. Magritte

Double in philosophy Kant Phenomenon and Noumenon Schopenhauer The World as Will and Representation Nietzsche Apollonian and Dionysian

“A Note on Realism” “The great writer shows us the realization and the apotheosis of the day-dreams of common man. His stories may be nourished with the realities of life but the true mark is to satisfy the nameless longings of the reader, and to obey the ideal laws of the day-dream” From A Gossip on Romance “The obvious is not of necessity the normal; […] the danger is lest, in seeking to draw the normal, a man should draw the null, and write the novel of society instead of the romance of man.” From A Humble Remonstrance

Final Aim: Perfection “The style is therefore the most perfect […] whether attains the highest degree of elegant and pregnant implication unobtrusively” From On style in literature: its technical elements Weir of Hermiston: unfinished due to the author’s death, presumably would have been his masterpiece, synthesis and fulfillment of all his theories.

“All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer” Robert Louis Stevenson