Memories and Portraits

by Robert Louis Stevenson

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Classics

312 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1887

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

[Annikky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quaint little book. I did not read all of it, as I ordered it for one specific essay, but ended up reading most of them (some on literature, some on memories of his childhood and youth). Stevenson's sentences can be somewhat confusing for a modern, non-native ear like mine, but there are perfect phrases and wise thoughts and bright flashes of gentle wit. The essay I read it for, his praise of Vicomte de Bragelonne was a delight for a Dumas fan-girl like me. The Kindle version is free - unfortunately without any footnotes to help today's reader.

[Daniel]

Jan 2025 -

Only read the last 3 essays:
- XIV. A Gossip on a Novel of Dumas's
- XV. A Gossip on Romance
- XVI. A Humble Remonstrance

Some really interesting thoughts on the 3 genres: Character, Drama, and Romance (as in Dumas, not Harlequin, trust me, it makes sense.) A bit hard to follow at times in part because he's making a lot of unfamiliar references, but def need to read more from RLS.

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have the 1906 Chatto and Windus London edition. Some of the articles are interesting. My fav is his college memories, old morality and A humble remonstrance. In the final article he argues that art never competes with Art and like geometry it's an abstract exercise; a perfect circle only exist in theory and geometry not in reality. He states "Life is monstrous, illogical,abrupt; a work of art in comparison is neat, self contained, rational..." Art has a purpose , a point to prove, life has no such constraint.

[Stacey]

Chesterton's biography of Robert Louis Stevenson paints a literary portrait of the author drawn in large part from Stevenson's essay "A Penny Plain and Twopence Coloured," which is what led me to Memories and Portraits. Stevenson is a lively and gifted essayist. I particularly enjoyed his reminiscences of a Scottish childhood, his evocative depictions of landscape and sense of place in "Memoirs of an Islet," and his insights on romance and story. His love of literature and joy in reading shine through his literary criticism. I enjoyed this book very much.

[Osman Tümay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graceful aging at Master’s level.

[Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uno de los libros de ensayo menos meritorios de Stevenson, no sé si por carecer de tema común o por presentarse como recopilación de textos de origen dispar. Lo mejor lo encontramos en las evocaciones del autor de diferentes momentos de su vida, ya sea cuando conforman la parte central del contenido ("Recuerdos de un islote" y "La casa del predicador" son lo mejor del volumen) como cuando dejan su rastro anecdótico ("Pastoral" o "Un viejo jardinero escocés", por citar otras dos que me han gustado). Stevenson habla entonces con voz dulce y algunos pasajes desprenden una ternura que pone de relieve la naturaleza humana del genio. Sin duda, el conjunto de estos fragmentos constituye una suerte de legado autobiográfico y su valor es incalculable.

Los demás ensayos están demasiado circunscritos a la contemporaneidad del autor como para resultar interesantes. A excepción de que uno sea escocés o inglés ("El extranjero en casa", "Recuerdos de universidad") o aficionado a la crítica literaria ("Un cotilleo sobre una novela de Dumas", "Un cotilleo sobre el relato novelesco", "Una humilde protesta"; los tres plagados de mil referencias a autores hoy sepultados bajo el polvo del olvido) entrar en sintonía con estos otros ejercicios de escritura es tarea imposible.

Me quedo con los recuerdos antes que con las semblanzas. Recomendable solo a completistas e incondicionales.

[Philip Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely little collection of observations. I particularly liked 'A College Magazine,' in which Stevenson reveals that his early attempts at writing were embarrasingly awful: "Poor, harmless paper, that might have gone to print a Shakespeare on, and was instead so clumsily defaced with nonsense." His comments remind all writers that the road to success is failure and I took great encouragemnet from the fact that such a great author evolved from an incompetent contributor to the College Magazine. "I clear-sightedly condemned my own performances. I liked doing them indeed; but when they were done, I could see they were rubbish."

[Viktoria Grover]

I did not read this in its entirety. It is very pleasurable.

[Cait · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got through this really quickly because I had best part of a day spent reading at one point.

I liked the essays about reading and books. The essay about dogs was good too. It was interesting to read about places in Edinburgh that I'm familiar with.