This first volume of the Swanston Edition of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson opens a handsome collected edition of one of the most beloved stylists in English. Stevenson is loved as the author of Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but he was also a superb essayist and travel writer, and this volume showcases that side of his genius.
Here readers find early travel narratives and essays in which Stevenson’s clear, supple, music-loving prose is already fully formed. His reflections on places, people, and the art of living combine charm with quiet wisdom, and his sentences are models of grace. For admirers of Stevenson and lovers of fine English prose alike, this opening volume is an inviting gateway into the non-fiction of a writer who made every paragraph a pleasure to read.