Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer from 1850 to 1894. Some of his most famous and popular works include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Stevenson studied law but wanted to be a writer. He met and married his wife Fanny in 1880, and their marriage prompted extensive travel throughout his life. Stevenson established personal relationships with readers and experimented with genres, combining careful writing with popular themes, which helped make his works international successes that are still widely read today.

1. Robert Lewis
Balfour Stevenson
by Evgenia Sheremetyeva

2. Robert Lewis Balfour
Stevenson?
Who is it?

3.  Robert Louis
Balfour
Stevenson
was a
Scottish
novelist, poet,
essayist, and
travel writer.
(13 Nov. 1850 – 3 Dec. 1894)

4. Okay, but still, who is it?

5. Have you ever heard of such books
as…
 Treasure Island
 Kidnapped
 Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
It was he who wrote them.

6. He was born in Edinburgh on 13
November 1850. His father Thomas
belonged to a family of engineers. And he
wanted him to be an engineer too.
Then he studied
law, Stevenson
“passed advocate"
in 1875 but did not
practice since he
wanted to be a
writer. His first
published work was
an essay called
"Roads", and his
first published
volumes were works
of travel writing.

7. The meeting with his
future wife, Fanny,
changed the rest of his
life. She was thirty-six,
an independent
American "New Woman",
separated from her
husband and with two
children.
After Fanny obtained a
divorce, she and Robert
were married in San
Francisco in May 1880.

8. Now, let's examine his
best and most popular
works…

9. Short Stories
The form had been elaborated and
developed in America, France and Russia
from the mid-19th century. It was
Stevenson who initiated the British
tradition.

10. His first published fictional
narrative was:
 "A Lodging for the Night" (1877),
 "The Sire De Maletroit’s Door" (1877),
 "Providence and the Guitar" (1878),
 "The Pavilion on the Links" (1880),
considered by Conan Doyle in 1890 as "the high-
water mark of [Stevenson’s] genius" and "the first
short story in the world".

11. Treasure Island and
"Children's Literature"

12. One rainy day in 1881 Stevenson and his twelve-year-
old stepson, Lloyd, drew the map of an imaginary
"Treasure Island". The map stimulated Stevenson’s
imagination and, he began to write a story based on it
as an entertainment for the rest of the family.

13. “Treasure Island” marks the
beginning of his popularity, it was
his first volume-length fictional
narrative, and the first of his
writings "for children”.

14. “Kidnapped” was from this range of his
writing for children too.

15. And how about “Strange Case of Dr
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”? Is it of this
range too?

16. No, “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is a
horror book, a try to rethink the "split
personality” theme that was very popular among
the Romantic movement of XVIII-XIX century.
By the way, this book and the characters were
very often used in films, cartoons, etc.

17. Novels and Romances
«Weir of Hermiston», Stevenson's very Scottish
romance, was written when Stevenson was far away
on the other side of the world. His decision to sail
around the Pacific in 1888, living on various islands
for short periods, then setting off again, was
another turning point in his life.

18. What is the secret of his
success?

19. 1)Stevenson establishes a personal
relationship with the reader, and creates a
sense of wonder through his brilliant style
and his adoption and manipulation of a
variety of genres.

20. 2)Writing when the period of the three-
volume novel was coming to an end, he
seems to have written everything except
a traditional Victorian novel:
plays, poems, essays, literary criticism, literary
theory, biography, travelogue, reportage, romances, b
oys’ adventure stories, fantasies, fables, and short
stories.

21. 3)Like the other writers who were asserting
the serious artistic nature of the novel at
this time he writes in a careful, almost
poetic style - yet he provocatively
combines this with an interest in popular
genres.

23. Robert Stevenson was a literary
celebrity during his
lifetime, Stevenson now ranks
among the 26 most translated
authors in the world. And this fame
is obviously not undeserved!
Are you agree? You can easily
examine it yourself.

24. Thank you!

25. Done By:
Evgenia Sheremetyeva
You can find me here
https://www.diigo.com/user/owl_cat
Resourse:
The site about Robert Stevenson
http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/