
In Walter Raleigh's book, Robert Louis Stevenson, the author examines the life and works of the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. Raleigh begins by exploring Stevenson's childhood and his early years in Edinburgh, where he was born and raised. He then looks at Stevenson's travels and his time in the South Seas, which had a profound influence on his writing. Raleigh also examines Stevenson's literary works, including his novels, short stories, and essays, and his poetry. He discusses the themes and ideas that Stevenson explored in his writing, and how his works have been interpreted by critics and readers. Finally, Raleigh looks at the legacy of Stevenson's work, and how it has been remembered and celebrated in the years since his death.
By Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh · First published 1906 · Genre: Biography, Literary Criticism, History · 10,895 words
When a popular writer dies, the question it has become the fashion with a nervous generation to ask is the question, 'Will he live?' There was no idler question, none more hopelessly impossible and unprofitable to answer. It is one of the many vanities of criticism to promise immortality to the authors that it praises, to patronise a writer with the assurance that our great-grandchildren, whose time and tastes are thus frivolously mortgaged, will read his works with delight. But 'there is no antidote against the opium of time, which temporally considereth all things: our fathers find their graves in our short memories, and sadly tell us how we may be buried in our survivors.' Let us make sure that our sons will care for Homer before we pledge a more distant generation to a newer cult.
Robert Louis Stevenson is listed on Textopian as an essay by Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh, dated 1906 CE.
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biography · literature · Scottish · novelist · poet · adventure · childhood · imagination · travel · friendship · influence · Victorian