Prince Otto: A Romance

Prince Otto: A Romance is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1885. The novel was largely written during 1883. Stevenson referred to Prince Otto as "my hardest effort," as one of the chapters was rewritten eight times by Stevenson and once by his wife.

     Robert Louis Stevenson's third full-length novel—unlike his many others—is a love story. Because of their royal responsibilities and lifestyle, Prince Otto and his wife have grown apart. Caught up in a web of palace conspiracies and strife, Otto and Serafina change, and their facades fall away, revealing the real people underneath.

Catriona

Catriona (also known as David Balfour) is an 1893 novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson as a sequel to his earlier novel Kidnapped (1886). It was first published in the magazine Atalanta from December 1892-September 1893. The novel continues the story of the central character in Kidnapped, David Balfour.

This novel's predecessor, Kidnapped, dealt mainly with a young boy's adventure. Sure, there are numerous references to Scottish history and the current political scene at the time the novel is set, but the reader is mainly entertained with a young lad's perilous adventures. In Catriona politics are pushed to the forefront and the adventure is merely given subplot status. Now if you love to see characters age and mature and enter different realms of life, and you enjoyed David Balfour's character in the first novel, you will enjoy the next tale in his interesting life; however, if you are picking up this sequel to revisit the excitement and passion from the first novel, you will be utterly disappointed.

Kidnapped

Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, written as a boys' novel and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May-July 1886. The novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis Borges, and Hilary Mantel. A sequel, Catriona, was published in 1893.

    The narrative is written in English with some dialogue in Lowland Scots, a Germanic language that evolved from an earlier incarnation of English.

    Kidnapped is set around real 18th Century Scottish events, notably the "Appin murder", which occurred in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Many of the characters are real people, including one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart. The political situation of the time is portrayed from multiple viewpoints, and the Scottish Highlanders are treated sympathetically.

    Just for fun, because I'm a nerd like this, the full title of the book is Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; his Journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he Suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Even though this novel was supposedly written for young readers, I believe it would be a very difficult read for most adults. Unless, of course, the adult is an avid reader and also loves Stevenson's other novels. The suspense and adventure is high in this novel, which definitely make it a worthwhile venture, but the references to Scottish history and the Scottish dialects and word choices will really temper a casual reader. The adventures our young main character has throughout the novel are comforting and entertaining, especially since you know he's telling the story so he must have survived the perils on every page. Once you get deeper into the novel, the language tends to become second nature, at least it did for me (such as when reading the difficult dialects of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) and the novel's enjoyment simply outweighs the difficulties.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson first published in 1886. The work is commonly known today as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or simply Jekyll & Hyde. It is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll and the evil Edward Hyde. The novel’s impact has become a part of the language with the very phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” meaning a person who is vastly different in moral character from one situation to the next.

    There have been many audio recordings of the novel with some of the more famous readers including Tom Baker, Roger Rees, Christopher Lee, Anthony Quayle, Martin Jarvis, Tim Pigott-Smith, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Gene Lockhart.

Treasure Island

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of “buccaneers and buried gold.” It was originally serialized in the children’s magazine Young Folks between 1881-1882 under the title Treasure Island, or The Mutiny of the Hispaniola, credited to the pseudonym “Captain George North.” It was first published as a book on November 14, 1883, by Cassell & Co.

     Treasure Island is traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, and is noted for its atmosphere, characters, and action. It is also noted as a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality, as depicted in Long John Silver—unusual for children’s literature. It is one of the most frequently dramatized of all novels. Its influence is enormous on popular perceptions of pirates, including such elements as treasure maps marked with an “X,” schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen bearing parrots on their shoulders.