Critical interest in Robert Louis Stevenson has never been greater. New editions of the author's works--from the poems to the travel writing, from the Scottish novels to the South Seas tales--are appearing. During the year 2000, the sesquicentennial of RLS's birth, three conferences were held in honor of the occasion and each entertained an international audience. This collection of essays reflects the scope of Robert Louis Stevenson's achievement and the range of current critical response. The first section contains four critical overviews that include an analysis of the Stevensonian imagination, an assessment of the author's literary theory, an examination of the coded significance of burial and reanimation in Stevenson's Wrong Box and other works, and an examination of the use of both Scottish and South Seas islands in his fiction. The second section contains three essays that examine the many-faceted Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Other works--An Inland Voyage, A Child's Garden of Verses, The Dynamiter, The Master of Ballantrae, and Prayers Written at Vailima--are the subjects of the six essays in the third section. Three essays on biography, popular culture, and personal response are in the fourth section.

Although Robert Louis Stevenson was a late Victorian, his work--especially Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--still circulates energetically and internationally among popular and academic audiences and among young and old. Admired by Henry James, Vladimir Nabokov, and Jorge Luis Borges, Stevenson's fiction crosses the boundaries of genre and challenges narrow definitions of the modern and the postmodern. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," provides an introduction to the writer's life, a survey of the criticism of his work, and a variety of resources for the instructor. In part 2, "Approaches," thirty essays address such topics as Stevenson's dialogue with James about literature; his verse for children; his Scottish heritage; his wanderlust; his work as gothic fiction, as science fiction, as detective fiction; his critique of imperialism in the South Seas; his usefulness in the creative writing classroom; and how Stevenson encourages expansive thinking across texts, times, places, and lives.

Robert Louis Stevenson and theories of reading is both an exceptionally well researched study of the novelist, and well as an intriguing exploration of 'literary consumption'. Glenda Norquay presents fresh interpretations of Stevenson’s literary essays, of major works including The Master of Ballantrae, and some of his more neglected fiction such as St Ives and The Wrecker, as well as illuminating our understanding of his role within debates over popular fiction, romance and reading pleasure. She offers an unusual combination of literary history and reception theory and argues that Stevenson both exemplified tensions within the literary market of his time and anticipated later developments in reading theory. By combining the study of nineteenth-century cultural politics with detailed analysis of his Scottish Calvinism, Stevenson is reassessed as both a Victorian and Scottish writer. The book is aimed at scholars, postgraduates and undergraduates with an interest in the nineteenth-century literary marketplace, in Scottish culture, and in reading /reception theory as well as Stevenson enthusiasts.

Explores Robert Louis Stevenson's collaborative processContains new readings of thirteen works by Robert Louis Stevenson, including several rarely discussedSheds light on connections between authorship, celebrity, the literary marketplace and the creative processSupported by extensive manuscript researchThis book investigates Stevenson's literary collaborations with family and friends as he travelled Scotland, America and the Pacific. With critical readings of both major and minor Stevenson texts, supported and contextualised by unpublished manuscripts and letters by both Stevenson and those he wrote with, this book argues that Stevenson's writings are both a product of and a meditation on collaborative writing. Stevenson's self-reflective body of work reimagines late-Victorian authorship by examining the ways that authors choose material, negotiate the marketplace and, ultimately, maintain power over their own words, or let that power go.

The book consists of a series of discussions of the prose fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson, from his first book, New Arabian Nights, to the last short novel published in his lifetime, The Ebb-Tide. All his best-known novels are covered, as well as a selection of his lesser-known works. The focus is on the works themselves, rather than on Stevenson's admittedly fascinating life, which is touched on only so as to provide a context for his writing. It is arranged by the dates when the works were written, rather than when they were published, so as to provide an outline sketch of his career as a writer. The emphasis is on the diversity and energy of Stevenson's creativity, without seeking to overemphasize distinctions frequently applied to him in the past, such as that between his 'stories for boys' and books apparently written for adults.

Stories of vampires, werewolves, zombies, witches, goblins, mummies, and other supernatural creatures have existed for time immemorial, and scary stories are among the earliest types of fiction ever recorded. Historical Dictionary of Horror Literature is an invaluable aid in studying horror literature, including influential authors, texts, terms, subgenres, and literary movements. This book contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 400 cross-referenced entries covering authors, subgenres, tropes, awards, organizations, and important terms related to horror. Historical Dictionary of Horror Literature is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about horror literature.