In his relatively short life, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a large number of books in many varied genre. In fact, there is so much variety in style, subject, and form that it is difficult to say what would be a typical Stevenson book, and perhaps that lack of identifiability has led to neglect. Some people think his works are mainly for children, like Treasure Island and some The Black Arrow. On the other hand, if you only know The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde you would have no idea of the scope of Stevenson's works.

He is widely praised for his 'Scottish novels' The Master of Ballantrae and Weir of Hermiston, which I like least of his works. I most like Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes.

In the last stage of his life, it was found that the climate of the South Seas, Tahiti and Samoa was the best for Robert Louis Stevenson, who suffered from tuberculosis. During the few years he lived in the archipelago he wrote several novellas and short stories about life in the South Seas. I loved reading a selection of his letters last year, and would love to read more.

In 1888 Stevenson chartered the schooner yacht Casco for a voyage visiting the South Sea islands. The ship first sailed to the Marquesas Islands, and then visited the Fakarava Atoll. They also went to Tahiti, then stayed for half a year in Honolulu, Hawaii. The following year they sailed to the Gilbert Islands, and then to Samoa, where he stayed for about six weeks. In 1890, he established himself on Samoa where he remained until his death.

In the South Seas is a series of essays based on the diaries he kept during his travels aboard the Casco. The essays are rather long and of geographical and anthropological nature, describing nature and the indigenous people of the islands.

The drums-- perhaps twenty strong, and some of them twelve feet high-- continuously throbbed in time. In time the singers kept up their long-drawn, lugubrious, ululating song; in time, too, the dancers, tricked out in singular finery, stepped, leaped, swayed, and gesticulated--their plumed fingers fluttering in the air like butterflies. (p.75)

Descriptions like these still paint a very exotic picture of the natives

Although V.S. Naipaul vehemently denied canibalism in his book The Loss of El Dorado and the Caribs in the Carribean, suggesting that the whole idea of cannibalism is a product of the Victorian mind, Stevenson found some traces of ritual cannibalism albeit on a very limited scale, actually close to confirming non-existence. Also, the idea of cooking humans in a big pot and feating on their remains is far from what he observed. He mere describes eating out of revenge, bringing a Swedish match box full of flesh home and eat it revengefully.

It is often claimed that Stevenson was a friend of the royal family at the Gilberts Islands, but this is put more clearly in context by the description in A tale of tapu (=taboo):

Mrs. Rick, being a sufficient mistress of that difficult tongue, was spokeswoman; she explained to the sick monarch that I was an intimate personal friend of Queen Victoria's; that immediately on my return I should make her a report upon Butaritari; and that if my house should have been again invaded by natives, a man-of-war would be despatched to make
reprisals. (...) Queen Victoria's friend (who was soon promoted to be her son) was free from these intrusions.

These essays contain many beautiful descriptions of nature, and detailed descriptions of the culture and customs of the native people in the islands. However, I must admit that there was a bit too much detail, the essays are a bit long, and over-all a bit boring. Running well over 250 pages, you really have to ask yourself how much you really want to know about the Marquesas and Gilbert Islands, because the focus of the writing is mostly on the subject rather than on Stevenson himself. ( )

Stevenson sailed in the south Pacific in the late 1880s. In the South Seas describes many of the islands he visited around this time. It is interesting to read about 19th century opinions and attitudes to the people of the South Seas, which can be shocking in places when read with modern eyes. In 1890 Stevenson and his wife Fanny bought a large tract of land in the Samoan island of Upolu where they lived until his death in 1894. His ability to describe the people, the land, and sailing conditions of what was at that time a remote, unfamiliar region, is unmatched. ( )

Fiction