Tales of Adventure: The Black Arrow: Treasure Island: The Treasure of Franchard: The Sire de Maletroit's Door: Will o' the Mill: The House of Eld: The Song of Morrow

Canongate Classics #77

by Robert Louis Stevenson

This collection includes Treasure Island, The Black Arrow, "The Treasure of Franchard," "Will o'the Mill," "The Sire de Malétroit' Door," "The House of Eld," and "The Song of the Morrow." Stevenson is one of the world' great storytellers. From the gripping opening of Treasure Island, to the unforgettable portrait of Richard III in The Black Arrow, his gift for driving narrative and marvelously paced prose holds the attention of the reader from beginning to end. This volume is designed to showcase the full range of Stevenson' talents as a writer of adventure. Included are not only some of his most famous works but also lesser known gems from The New Arabian Nights and Fables. Edited by Francis Russell Hart.

602 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2001

About the author

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.

Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.

Reviews

[Diana Sandberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read and loved Treasure Island many times, but wanted to read Black Arrow, and this was the only book the library had with Black Arrow in it. It isn't the near-perfect work of art that is Treasure Island, but I quite enjoyed it. The depiction of Richard of Gloucester was intriguing. And I was charmed by Stevenson's *two* footnotes to the effect that the real Richard would have been too young to be this person.

As for the several short stories that are also in this edition, well....meh. They are all early works and I guess I'll excuse them on those grounds. I found the characters uniformly foolish and mostly dull.