Biographie de Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94). As a novelist he is often noted for the powers of invention and depth of psychological insight found in his work; a skill defined by G. K. Chesterton as being able to pick the right word up on the point of his pen. Born in Edinburgh in 1850, Robert Louis (originally Lewis) Balfour Stevenson was the son of a prosperous civil engineer. His father had plans for Stevenson to follow his profession but his son's ill-health and weak disposition meant that an alternative career had to be decided upon.
Choosing law as a compromise, Stevenson attended Edinburgh University to study for the bar but his growing disillusion with the Presbyterian respectability of his parents' class led to frequent clashes and he became distanced from them, preferring instead to lead a bohemian existence. His fascination for the city's low life and the bizarre characters he came across proved rich material for his later stories, By the time Stevenson was called to the bar in 1875 he was already determined to become a professional writer.
While still in his early twenties he began suffering from severe respiratory problems, which the Scottish climate did nothing to alleviate. In an attempt to relieve his symptoms, he spent much of his life travelling to warmer countries and it was while living in France in 1876 that he met his future wife, Mrs Fanny Osbourne, a woman ten years his senior. He followed her to California by emigrant ship in 1879 and they later married after her divorce was finalized.
Stevenson's early published works, An Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels with a Donkey in the Cervennes (1879), based on his own adventures, were followed by a constant stream of articles and essays. However, it wasn't until 1883 that his first full-length work of fiction, Treasure Island, appeared. A severe bout of illness followed by a period of rest at Bournemouth brought Stevenson into contact with Henry James with whom he became close friends.
The recognition Stevenson had received from Treasure Island grew with the publication of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Kidnapped in 1886. In 1888 he took his family to the South Seas once more in search of a climate more conducive to his condition. Settling in Samoa, he gained a reputation as a story-teller, especially among the natives. He died from a brain haemorrhage while working on his unfinished masterpiece, Weir of Hermiston, in 1894.
Stevenson's Calvinistic upbringing and constant fight against ill-health led to the preoccupation with death and the darker side of human nature which is found in his work. Despite Stevenson's claim that fiction is to grown men what play is to the child, he had, by the end of his life, mastered an enormous range of fiction, from historical adventure stories and swashbuckling romances to gothic-style horror stories.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde originated in a dream Stevenson once had. Upon waking he recalled a fine bogy tale and immediately set about writing it down. The focus on the split personality and underlying suggestion that evil is potentially more powerful than good ensure its continued popularity over a hundred years on.
