Louis: A Life of Robert Louis Stevenson

by Philip Callow

Book Overview

There are many Stevensons behind the initials RLS, but the one that has endeared him to readers for so long is surely the fighter, battling to stay alive. Jorge Luis Borges described his brief life as courageous and heroic. In Philip Callow's absorbing new biography, one can see why. Doctors, called repeatedly to what should have been his deathbed, would find a scarecrow, twitching and alive. A sickly child, Louis became in turn a bohemian dandy,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566633435
• ISBN13: 9781566633437
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Revealing and vivid

This biography of the life of Robert Louis Stevenson reveals a man who escaped his Scottish town and family and went overland to California in poverty to reach his love, where he became a nomad, dreamed of being an explorer, and became instead a noted author. The myths and realities surrounding Stevenson's life and adventures are revealing and vivid in Callow's fine portrait.