Robert Louis Stevenson

From the adventures of Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island to The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson's legacy of novels and adventure stories is considerable and filled with colourful characters and rich settings, making for exciting and compelling reads for adults and young readers alike. Robert Louis Stevenson began writing articles whilst studying law at Edinburgh University and his earliest works were inspired by his travels around France. Treasure Island was written in 1883 and was followed by his other great novels, including Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Treasure Island tells the tale of Jim Hawkins and his dramatic adventure involving bloodthirsty pirates and their sinister leader, Long John Silver, and has captured the imaginations of generations of young readers. Kidnapped, too, has all the ingredients of a classic adventure story. Set in the highlands of Scotland during the Jacobite rebellion its hero, Alan Breck Steward, fearless and romantic, is one of Stevenson's most engaging characters. Weir of Hermiston, written in 1896, was left unfinished by Stevenson at the time of his death but contains some of this best writing. A vibrant story about the austere Scottish judge and his son, the novel displays the fruition of Stevenson's narrative abilities. The Master of Ballantrae tells of the lifelong feud between Master Ballantrae and his young brother Henry. This novel in particular underlines Stevenson's preoccupation with destiny and fate. The Black Arrow originally appeared in serial form and is a tremendously exciting adventure story in which the hero, Richard Shelton, fight for the Yorkists during the War of the Roses, encounters Richard III and an infamous band of archers who use the dreaded black arrows. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, tells of how a doctor creates a separate personality, evil in instinct and repulsive in appearance, through the use of a special drug he has discovered. Robert Louis Stevenson's legacy of novels and adventure stories is considerable and filled with colourful characters and rich settings, exciting and compelling for adults and young readers alike.

Classics with legible texts you can actually read at a fantastic price.

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This edition of Stevenson's beloved classic of children's poetry features all-new illustrations by award-winning artist McClintock.

Seventeen-year-old David Balfour's villainous uncle has him kidnapped in order to steal his inheritance. David escapes only to fall into the dangerous company of rebels who are resisting British redcoats in the Scottish highlands.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.' Orphaned as a young teenager, Lowlander David Balfour's only relative is his guardian and uncle, Ebenezer. Ill-thought of and disliked by many, it's not long before Ebenezer betrays his nephew and David finds himself trapped aboard a ship. He soon strikes up a friendship with fugitive stranger and Scottish Highlander Alan Breck and becomes embroiled in the fierce Jacobite struggle against English rule. A tale of high-seas adventure, loyalty and fighting, the complex relationship between Alan and David stops Stevenson's novel from becoming 'just' a boys adventure novel.

This title includes an introduction and notes by Professor Roger Cardinal. The author of dozens of adventure novels and fantastical tales, Robert Louis Stevenson was also an enthusiast of travel, whether wandering on foot through France in the company of a donkey, crossing the plains of North America in a train crammed with emigrants, or cruising under sail with his wife in the waters of the Pacific. A lively curiosity stimulated his observations of distant places and unknown people: and this selection from his travel writings bears the imprint of a generous and plucky spirit, always eager to embrace the unfamiliar and the exotic. 'There are no foreign lands', Stevenson once wrote, 'it is the traveller only who is foreign'. This volume includes the well-known Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), along with The Amateur Emigrant (1895), Across the Plains (1892) and The Silverado Squatters (1883), and other material from Stevenson's American journeys. Roger Cardinal is Emeritus Professor of Literary & Visual Studies at the University of Kent, Canterbury, England. He is the author of Figures of Reality (1981) and The Landscape Vision of Paul Nash (1989). He has also written extensively on German Romanticism, Expressionism, Surrealism and Outsider Art.

Pirates, buried treasure and action aplenty — that's what's served up in this fine story. After Jim Hawkins finds the map to a mysterious treasure, he sets sail in search of the fortune. Little does he realise he's boarded a pirate ship and that surprises and danger await him...including a meeting with the unforgettable Long John Silver. With «Classic Starts[trademark]», young readers can experience the wonder of timeless stories from an early age. Abridged for easier reading and carefully rewritten, each classic novel is filled with all the magic and excitement that made the original story a beloved favourite. The audio CD enables young readers to listen to the story, whilst following along with the book. This title is aimed at children aged 7 to 9 years old.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Fifteen men on the dead man's chest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!' Upon finding a map in his parents' inn, young Jim Hawkins joins a crew on route to the Caribbean to find buried treasure. One of his crew, the charming, yet devious Long John Silver is determined to snag the booty for himself and Jim's swashbuckling voyage becomes a mutinous and murderous adventure — where his own bravery is put to the test and he discovers much about friendship, loyalty and betrayal.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil.' After taking an elixir created in his laboratory, mild mannered Dr Jekyll is transformed into the cruel and despicable Mr Hyde. Although seemingly harmless at first, things soon descend into chaos and Jekyll quickly realises there is only one way to stop Hyde. Stevenson's quintessential novella of the Victorian era epitomizes the conflict between psychology, science and religious morality, but is fundamentally a triumphant study of the duality of human nature.

Each volume in the Collector's Library series has a specially commissioned Afterword, brief biography of the author and a further reading list. The Afterword for this edition of is by Ned Halley.Set in Scotland in 1751, Kidnapped tells of how young David Balfour, orphaned, and betrayed by his uncle Ebenezer who should have been his guardian, is kidnapped, and falls in with Alan Breck, the unscrupulous but heroic champion of the Jacobite cause. The novel revolves around their friendship and their differences, suggesting a metaphor for Scotland itself.Modern critics see the novel as more than a boy's adventure yarn; at the heart of it lies what Henry James described as the 'really excellent' chapters of the flight in the heather that raise the novel to greatness.

Robert Louis Stevenson investigates into the nature of good and evil in this novel set in the Scotland of 1745. This was the year many in Scotland fought to put a Scottish king on the British throne. Two brothers, James and Henry Durie, become involved in this historical event. But The Master of Ballantrae is a also worldwide novel. Readers will travel from Scotland to New York, to India… Along the way, they will meet soldiers, hunters and pirates.

Why is the frightening Mr Hyde a friend of the nice Dr Jekyll? Who is the evil little man? And why does he seem to have power over the doctor? After a terrible murder, everyone is looking for Mr Hyde. But he has disappeared. Or has he?

Dr Jekyll is a London doctor who is liked and respected for his work. Mr Hyde is an evil man, completely unknown in London society. There is a murder and Hyde seems to be responsible. So why does the good doctor give Mr Hyde the key to his house and decide to leave everything to Mr Hyde in his will?

Jim Hawkins and his parents have a quiet inn by the sea. Then one day, an old sailor arrives at the inn. What is he afraid of? Dangerous men come to the inn. Jim's quiet life changes, and he goes across the sea by ship to Treasure Island.

Jim Hawkins and his parents have a quiet inn by the sea. Then one day, an old sailor arrives at the inn. What is he afraid of? Dangerous men come to the inn. Jim's quiet life changes, and he goes across the sea by ship to Treasure Island.

The literary world was shocked when in 1889, at the height of his career, Robert Louis Stevenson announced his intention to settle permanently on the Pacific island of Samoa. His readers were equally shocked when he began to use the subject material offered by his new environment, not to promote a romance of empire, but to produce some of the most ironic and critical treatments of imperialism in nineteenth-century fiction. In these stories, as in his work generally, Stevenson shows himself to be a virtuoso of narrative styles: his Pacific fiction includes the domestic realism of `The Beach at Falesé, the folktale plots of `The Bottle Imp' and `The Isle of Voices', and the modernist blending of naturalism and symbolism in «The Ebb-Tide». But beyond their generic diversity the stories are linked by their concern with representing the multiracial society of which their author had become a member. In this collection — the first to bring together all his shorter Pacific fiction in one volume — Stevenson emerges as a witness both to the cross-cultural encounters of nineteenth-century imperialism and to the creation of the global culture which characterizes the post-colonial world.

'I ran to the side of the ship. «Help, help! Murder!» I screamed, and my uncle slowly turned to look at me. I did not see any more. Already strong hands were pulling me away. Then something hit my head; I saw a great flash of fire, and fell to the ground...' And so begin David Balfour's adventures. He is kidnapped, taken to sea, and meets many dangers. He also meets a friend, Alan Breck. But Alan is in danger himself, on the run from the English army across the wild Highlands of Scotland...

Dr Jekyll is a London doctor who is liked and respected for his work. Mr Hyde is an evil man, completely unknown in London society. There is a murder and Hyde seems to be responsible. So why does the good doctor give Mr Hyde the key to his house – and decide to leave everything to Mr Hyde in his will?

In the summer of 1881, staying near Braemar in Scotland, Stevenson reported excitedly that he was on to a new story: «The Sea Cook, or Treasure Island». Written at the rate of a chapter a day for fifteen days (and completed later in the same year), the novel soon became a classic. An absorbing tale of buccaneers, a map, a romantic quest for treasure, it is also the story of the sea cook of its original title — the brilliantly drawn Long John Silver, that smooth and formidable adventurer of whom Stevenson was rightly proud and for whom even he felt a little admiration.

After his parents die, young David Balfour goes to the house of his uncle Ebenezer. But his uncle is a dangerous man. When he puts David on a ship to America, a difficult and dangerous time begins. But who is the stranger on the ship? Can he help David?

After his parents die, young David Balfour goes to the house of his uncle Ebenezer. But his uncle is a dangerous man. When he puts David on a ship to America, a difficult and dangerous time begins. But who is the stranger on the ship? Can he help David?

Why is the frightening Mr Hyde a friend of the nice Dr Jekyll? Who is the evil little man? And why does he seem to have power over the doctor? After a terrible murder, everyone is looking for Mr Hyde. But he has disappeared. Or has he?

'Instantly the spirit of hell awoke in me and raged...I was suddenly struck through the heart by a cold thrill of terror.' Stevenson's short novel, published in 1886, became an instant classic. It was a Gothic horror that originated in a feverish nightmare, whose hallucinatory setting in the murky back streets of London gripped a nation mesmerized by crime and violence. The respectable doctor's mysterious relationship with his disreputable associate is finally revealed in one of the most original and thrilling endings in English literature. In addition to Jekyll and Hyde, this edition also includes a number of short stories and essays written by Stevenson in the 1880s, minor masterpieces of fiction and comment: 'The Body Snatcher', 'Markheim', and 'Olalla' feature grave-robbing, a sinister double, and degeneracy, while 'A Chapter on Dreams' and 'A Gossip on Romance' discuss artistic creation and the 'romance' form. Appendixes provide extracts from contemporary writings on personality disorder, which set Stevenson's tale in its full historical context.