Product Description

In the lush, uninhibited atmosphere of Samoa, Robert Louis Stevenson is languishing with the disease that will soon kill him; when a chance encounter with the mysterious Scottish missionary, Mr Baker, turns his thoughts back to his conservative, post-Reformation Edinburgh home. As Stevenson's meetings with the tantalizingly nebulous missionary become increasingly strange, a series of crimes against the native population sours the atmosphere. With its playful nod to Stevenson's life and work Manguel has woven an intoxicating tale in which fantasy infiltrates reality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #770016 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Review
"Ingenious... This is a potent, poetic ghost story." Daily Mail; "Almost perfectly executed, it's an exquisite amuse bouche whose taste lingers on." The Times; "Manguel mixes motifs from Stevenson's life and work into a delightful literary souffle." Independent; "Richly told in faultless prose." Independent on Sunday; "Manguel is both the wizard releasing coloured doves from a black top hat and the dedicated scholar soberly at desk." Spectator"

Independent on Sunday, 11th January
"Stevenson Under the Palm Trees is richly told in faultless prose."

The Observer, 11th January
"Manguel merges fantasy and reality to create a deceptively simple tale that’s both evocative and subtly disturbing."

Customer Reviews

Slight but enjoyable
This is an intriguing little volume that's apparently loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson's correspondence during his last few years. It's evocative and believable, though I'm not sure (if it's as fictionalised as it seems to be) why it needed to be based on a real person.

The mind plays tricks in the jungle
An odd little novella about Robert Louis Stevenson; this edition is lushly produced with posh covers and illustrated with some of Stevenson's own woodcuts (at 105 pages of big text it needs to justify its price tag!).

It's a story based on Stevenson's last days in Samoa as he is dying of tuberculosis. After his meeting with a newly arrived Scottish missionary, bad things start to happen and Stevenson is drawn into the events in a way such that in his ill state he can't be sure what's happening.

A powerful and slightly strange little story that echoes RLS's own work. Interesting but I would have preferred a longer novel or collection of stories.