Essays on Robert Louis Stevenson

November 13, 1850, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

December 3, 1894, Vailima, Apia, Samoa

Novelist, Poet, Travel Writer

Victorian Era

• Treasure Island
• A Child's Garden of Verses Kidnapped
• Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

• "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
• "All human beings are commingled out of good and evil."
• "Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."

13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894

Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped and A Child's Garden of Verses.

Treasure Island (1881), Kidnapped (1886), Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), The Master of Ballantrae (1889).

Numerous themes resonate in Robert Louis Stevenson's works. His most popular novels include the themes of the search for adventure, the journey of exploration from youth to adulthood, and the quest for self-discovery and inspirational role models. Stevenson also writes about the duality of human nature – the idea that every single human being has good and evil within them.

Stevenson's writing style was known as knowledgeable and comprehensible. Essentially, his writing was easy to understand and got the point across very well. Some of Robert Louis Stevenson's best works are based of real experiences that occurred during his prestigious life.

A celebrity in his lifetime, Stevenson's critical reputation has fluctuated since his death, though today his works are held in general acclaim. In 2018 he was ranked, just behind Charles Dickens, as the 26th-most-translated author in the world. He was a writer of originality and power who produced brilliant adventure stories with subtle moral overtones and perceptive renderings of the human condition.

“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.”
“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”
“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.”