Robert Louis Stevenson and the Appearance of Modernism

435 Pages·1996·24.89 MB·English

by  Alan Sandison

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON AND
THE APPEARANCE OF MODERNISM
Also by Alan Sandison
GEORGE ORWELL: AFTER 1984
(revised edition of) THE LAST MAN IN EUROPE
THE WHEEL OF EMPIRE
JULIUS CAESAR AND FRIENDS: THE IDEA OF ROME IN
SHAKESPEARE'S JULIUS CAESAR
Robert Louis Stevenson
and the Appearance
of Modernism
A Future Feeling
Alan Sandison
m
First published in Great Britain 19% by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
ISBN 0-333-62067-4
First published in the United States of America 1996 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0-312-15968-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sandison, Alan.
Robert Louis Stevenson and the appearance of modernism / Alan
Sandison.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-312-15968-4 (cloth)
1. Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894—Criticism and
interpretation. 2. Modernism (Literature)—Scotland. I. Title.
PR5496.S185 1996
828'.809—dc20 95-50589
CIP
©Alan Sandison 1996
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London WIP9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
10 9 8 7 6 54 3 21
05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
To Helen M. Henderson, the best of teachers, and
in memoriam J. A. H., the best of students

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: 'A Future Feeling' 1
1 A Crisis of Paternity 18
2 Treasure Island: The Parrot's Tale 48
3 Arabesque 82
4 Prince Otto: To Write and Obliterate 145
5 Kidnapped and Catriona: The Missing Storey 179
6 jekyll and Hyde: The Story of the Door 215
7 Tvfo Other Father': Title Deeds in The Master of Ballantrae 270
8 The Ebb-Tide: A Modernist in the South Seas 317
9 Weir of Hermiston: The Horizon of Silence 369
Select Bibliography 415
Index 421
vu
Acknowledgements
For their valuable assistance in reading drafts and their constructive
criticism, I am indebted to Alison Hoddinott, Elaine and Kenneth
Moon, David Evans and Robert Dingley. The latter, in particular, has
sacrificed a great deal of time and given freely of his own large store
of knowledge of Victorian life and letters in the furtherance of this
study. I should also like to record the help I received by being given
access to the Beinecke Library and from discussions with John Scally
of the National Library of Scotland.
vm
To go back to where Henry James, and Browning, and Swinbume
and Meredith had come. ...
The others all stayed where they were, it was where they had
come but Henry James knew he was on his way And so although
they did in a way the same thing, his had a future feeling and
theirs an ending.
Gertrude Stein
.. .in the early seventies there came a kind of awakening. ...
Gertrude Jekyll
IX