How to Read Robert Louis Stevenson
Stevenson is one of Scotland’s greatest authors – a master storyteller with an indelible global legacy. But how – and why – did the mind behind the ultimate pirate yarn and boys’ adventure story (Treasure Island) also produce the gothic horror of the world’s greatest allegory on human duality (Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)? This lecture reveals the golden thread that links together Stevenson’s often disparate, experimental body of work, illuminating his theories on the necessity of fiction and its positive long-term impacts.
This session was chaired and hosted by Professor Heather McGregor, incoming Provost, Dubai campus, Heriot-Watt University.
About the Speaker
Caroline Howitt is Programme Director at Adam Smith's Panmure House, a centre for new economic and social debate and research.
Like Smith 200 years before her, Caroline attended the University of Glasgow before undertaking postgraduate study at Balliol College, Oxford under the Snell Scholarship. She later wrote her PhD on the work of Robert Louis Stevenson, and taught English Literature at the University of St Andrews.
Stevenson on Romance
The following essays by Robert Louis Stevenson are accessible for free. Simply click on the title you'd like to view and enjoy.
1874: 'Victor Hugo's Romances'
1881: 'The Morality of the Profession of Letters'
1882: 'A Gossip on Romance'
1883: 'A Note on Realism'
1884: 'A Humble Remonstrance'
1884: 'On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature'
1887: 'A Chapter on Dreams'
1887: 'The Lantern Bearers'