Part 10 (1/2)

”Heu na fata aspera rumpas, Tu Marcellus eris

Sed nox atra caput tristi circumvolat umbra”

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

April 15, 1893 The ”Island Nights' Entertainiven this book another title It covers but two out of the three stories in the volume; and, even so, it has the ill-luck to be cohts_

The _New Arabian Nights_ was in many respects a parody of the Eastern book It had, if we make a few necessary allowances for the difference between East and West, the saant, intoxicated romance The characters had the same adventurous irresponsibility, and exhibit the sa Man with the Crea froeour sits helpless before his destiny as sat that other youngand danced the dance of Zantout

Indeed Destiny in these books reseer and thu his victims by the nose It is as omnipotent, as irrational, as huinal Of course I aeneral presentainst _Aladdin_ I a out that life is presented to us in Galland and in Mr Stevenson's first book of tales under very si that Mr Stevenson has to abate so of the supernatural, or to handle it less frankly

But several years divide the _New Arabian Nights_ frohts' Entertainments_; and in the interval our author has written _The Master of Ballantrae_ and his farown in his understanding of the human creature and in his speculations upon his creature's duties and destinies He has travelled far, on shi+pboard and in eh much sickness; has acquired property and responsibility; has mixed in public affairs; has written _A Footnote to History_, and sundry letters to the _Times_; and even, as his latest letter shows, stands in soer of imprisonment Therefore, while the title of his new volume would seem to refer us once more to the old Arabian n belied by the contents The third story, indeed, _The Isle of Voices_, has affinity with some of the Arabian tales--with Sindbad's adventures, for instance But in the longer _Beach of Falesa_ and _The Bottle I with no debauch of fancy, but with the problems of real life

For what is the knot untied in the _Beach of Falesa_? If I mistake not, our interest centres neither in Case's dirty trick of the e, nor in his more stiff-jointed trick of the devil-contraptions

The first but helps to construct the problem, the second seems a superfluity The problem is (and the author puts it before us fair and square), How is Wiltshi+re a fairly loose irl he has wronged? And I am bound to say that as soon as Wiltshi+re answers that question before the ed--my interest in the story, which is but halftold at this point, begins to droop As I said, the ”devil-work” chapter strikes h-and-tumble And I feel certain that the story itself is to bla one of those who had as lief Mr Stevenson spake of the South Seas as of the Hebrides, so that he speak and I listen Let it be granted that the Polynesian nauish at first--they are easier than Russian by rees--yet the difficulty vanishes as you read the _Song of Rahero_, or the _Footnote to History_ And if it comes to habits, custo who can find no ro Melville's _Typee_ No, the story itself is to blame

But what is the huine Scheherazade with a hu less, if you please than the proble reat sacrifice of self, it is no fortuitous God but her own husband ins her release, and at a price no less fearful than she herself has paid Keawe being in possession of a bottle whichhim to hell-flames unless he can dispose of it at a certain price, Kokua his wife by a stratagem purchases the bottle from him, and stands committed to the doom he has escaped She does her best to hide this fro the truth, by another stratagem wins back the curse upon his own head, and is only rescued by a _deus ex machina_ in the shape of a drunken boatswain

Two or three reviewers have already given utterance upon this voluely unable to determine which is the best of its three tales I vote for _The Bottle Imp_ without a second's doubt; and, if asked h and universal problem, whereas in _The Isle of Voices_ there is no problem at all, and in the _Beach of Falesa_ the probleh of this I won't be sure) more closely restricted by the accidents of circumstance and individual character; (2) as I have hinted, the _Beach of Falesa_ has faults of construction, one of which is serious, if not vital, while _The Isle of Voices_, though beautifully composed, is tied down by the triviality of its subject But _The Bottle Ie ends the tale, and the tale is told with a light grace, sportive within restraint, that takes nothing froant praise for a little story which, after all (they will say), is flimsy as a soap bubble But let the authors who could have written it, and it in to dawn on theth and thickness

Sept 9, 1893 First thoughts on ”Catriona”

Soether in a little volume eleven sketches of eleven men whose fah For this reason, I believe, he called theh Eleven”--as fond admirers speak of Mr Arthur Shrewsbury (upon whose renown it is notorious that the sun never sets) as ”the Notts Professional,” and of a yet more illustrious cricketer by his paltry title of ”Doctor”--

”Not soit a hope that there It could not wither'd be”

Of the Eleven referred to, Mr Robert Louis Stevenson was sent in at eighth wicket down to face this cunning ”delivery”:--”He experi to be With Cowley's candor he tells us that he wants to write so by which he may be for ever known His atte different ways, and he always starts off whistling Having gone so far without losing himself, he turns back to try another road Does his heart fail hi, _or is it because there is no hurry?_But it is quite tiun”

I have taken the liberty to italicise a word or two, because in them Mr Barrie supplied an answer to his question ”The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne!” is not an exhortation to hurry: and in Mr

Stevenson's case, at any rate, there was not the least need to hurry

There was, indeed, a time when Mr Stevenson had not persuaded himself of this In _Across the Plains_ he tells us how, at windy Anstruther and an extree, he used to draw his chair to the table and pour forth literature ”at such a speed, and with such intimations of early death and immortality, as I now look back upon onder

Then it was that I wrote _Voces Fideliuues in verse; then that I indited the bulk of a Covenanting novel--like so ht, toiling (as I thought) under the very dart of death, toiling to leave a memory behind me I feel moved to thrust aside the curtain of the years, to hail that poor feverish idiot, to bid hioes, so clear does he appear tothere between his candles in the rose-scented rooht; so ridiculous a picture (to my elderly wisdom) does the fool present!”

There was no hurry then, as he now sees: and there never was cause to hurry, I repeat ”But how is this? Is, then, the great book written?”

I aoes to show that _The_ Great Book (like _The_ Great Areat story has been written is certain enough: and one of the curious points about this story is its title

It is not _Catriona_; nor is it _Kidnapped_ _Kidnapped_ is a taking title, and _Catriona_ beautiful in sound and suggestion of romance: and _Kidnapped_ (as everyone knows) is a capital tale, though ian to point out, the day after its issue) a capital tale with an aard fissure midway in it

”It is the fate of sequels”--thus Mr Stevenson begins his Dedication--”to disappoint those who have waited for theland (who, it ht more of _Treasure Island_ than of _Kidnapped_) will take but lukewaret its predecessor No: the title of the great story is _The Memoirs of David Balfour_ Catriona has a prettier naive it to the last book of her lover's adventures: but the Odyssey was not christened after Penelope

Put _Kidnapped_ and _Catriona_ together within the sae, one dedication (here will be the severest loss) and one table of contents, in which the chapters are nus--read the tale right through froate at Essendean to his hoe, by Catriona's side, on the Low Country shi+p

And having done this, be so good as to perceive how paltry are the objections you raised against the two voluain one or two of them