Nine portraits collected from the Cornhill and other magazines, ranging across centuries and countries. Stevenson weighs Victor Hugo’s romances, defends and judges Robert Burns, takes the measure of Whitman and Thoreau, follows François Villon as student, poet and housebreaker, reads Pepys’s diary, examines John Knox’s dealings with women, and tells the story of the Japanese reformer Yoshida Torajiro.
Literary essays with a novelist’s eye for character, and a delight for anyone who loves Stevenson’s prose. Download the free EPUB.