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Fanny Stevenson. Tra passione e libertà
Dopo Belle Greene e La donna dalle cinque vite, una nuova appassionante biografia-romanzo di Alexandra Lapierre.
Fanny Stevenson è il racconto travolgente di un’esistenza fuori dal comune, ricca di sogni e avventure. La vita di una donna che fu l’unico grande amore dell’autore dello Strano caso del Dottor Jekyll e del Signor Hyde e dell’Isola del tesoro. Avventuriera, pittrice, icona. Una donna che ha incarnato un’epoca.
Quella di Fanny Stevenson è la storia di una donna che ha vissuto mille esperienze. Lasciata la tranquilla e solida famiglia borghese d’origine per seguire il primo marito, cercatore d’oro nel deserto del Nevada, Fanny conobbe giovanissima l’isolamento e la lotta per la sopravvivenza nei grandi spazi di una natura ostile. Disgustata dalla vita americana, lasciò il marito e si trasferì senza denaro e senza conoscenze, in Francia. Nel cuore della vecchia Europa rappresentò l’incarnazione di un nuovo ideale femminile, the american girl, e diventò una delle prime donne pittrici nella Parigi degli impressionisti. Ma l’evento fondamentale della sua vita fu l'incontro con Robert Louis Stevenson, di undici anni più giovane di lei. Per l’autore dello Strano caso del Dottor Jekyll e del Signor Hyde, rinunciò al suo mondo. Insieme si stabilirono in un’isoletta delle Samoa e vissero un amore più forte delle convinzioni ottocentesche che lo contrastarono, più forte della malattia e della morte. La loro relazione, dapprima passionale e romantica, poi più sottile e complessa, sarà l'elemento decisivo che trasformerà il giovane e ribelle Stevenson nel più acclamato genio letterario del suo tempo.
Fanny Stevenson è il racconto travolgente di un’esistenza fuori dal comune, ricca di sogni e avventure. La vita di una donna che fu l’unico grande amore dell’autore dello Strano caso del Dottor Jekyll e del Signor Hyde e dell’Isola del tesoro. Avventuriera, pittrice, icona. Una donna che ha incarnato un’epoca.
Quella di Fanny Stevenson è la storia di una donna che ha vissuto mille esperienze. Lasciata la tranquilla e solida famiglia borghese d’origine per seguire il primo marito, cercatore d’oro nel deserto del Nevada, Fanny conobbe giovanissima l’isolamento e la lotta per la sopravvivenza nei grandi spazi di una natura ostile. Disgustata dalla vita americana, lasciò il marito e si trasferì senza denaro e senza conoscenze, in Francia. Nel cuore della vecchia Europa rappresentò l’incarnazione di un nuovo ideale femminile, the american girl, e diventò una delle prime donne pittrici nella Parigi degli impressionisti. Ma l’evento fondamentale della sua vita fu l'incontro con Robert Louis Stevenson, di undici anni più giovane di lei. Per l’autore dello Strano caso del Dottor Jekyll e del Signor Hyde, rinunciò al suo mondo. Insieme si stabilirono in un’isoletta delle Samoa e vissero un amore più forte delle convinzioni ottocentesche che lo contrastarono, più forte della malattia e della morte. La loro relazione, dapprima passionale e romantica, poi più sottile e complessa, sarà l'elemento decisivo che trasformerà il giovane e ribelle Stevenson nel più acclamato genio letterario del suo tempo.
696 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 11, 1993
7 people are currently reading
451 people want to read
About the author
Alexandra Lapierre
41 books164 followersAlexandra Lapierre has won international acclaim for her writing. Her works have been widely translated and she has received numerous awards, including the Honorary Award of the Association of American University Women. She earned an MFA degree in 1981 from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
The daughter of the writer Dominique Lapierre, she was brought up surrounded by books. At the Sorbonne in Paris, she learned how to research. And, she said, her studies at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles and the University of Southern California taught her how to tell a story, "something we have forgotten a bit in French literature today."
She was voted Woman of Culture by the city of Rome, Italy, and has been nominated Chevalier in the “Order of Arts and Letters” by the French government. Her most recent work, L’Excessive, was an immediate best seller in Europe and is being developed for a television series. Alexandra Lapierre lives in Paris.
The daughter of the writer Dominique Lapierre, she was brought up surrounded by books. At the Sorbonne in Paris, she learned how to research. And, she said, her studies at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles and the University of Southern California taught her how to tell a story, "something we have forgotten a bit in French literature today."
She was voted Woman of Culture by the city of Rome, Italy, and has been nominated Chevalier in the “Order of Arts and Letters” by the French government. Her most recent work, L’Excessive, was an immediate best seller in Europe and is being developed for a television series. Alexandra Lapierre lives in Paris.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
March 25, 2021
I HAD NO IDEA!!! This is continually how I reacted when I read about the life of Fanny Stevenson (1840-1914), the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson, the famed novelist, poet and travel writer (1850-1894). It was with continual wonder and surprise that I read the pages of this book. Beginning in the 1860s she traveled the world in a fashion that sounds imaginary. She traveled from Indianapolis, where she was born, to New York, then boat to the Panama Isthmus, on to San Francisco and then Nevada. The transcontinental railroad was not yet complete. To top it all off she traveled alone with her baby daughter, just a jingle of change and a few notes in her pocket. She traveled back a few years later. All her life she was a vagabond. Fed up with the antics of her first skirt-chasing husband she traveled again alone with her two young children to study art in France. Later, married to R.L.S., they sailed the South Pacific. Travel she did, and not always in luxury.
Usually she was fighting somebody or something – people or illness. She was a tremendously strong woman, clearly not an easy woman to live with. She broke society’s rules over and over again. She was one determined lady, set to do exactly what was necessary to achieve her goals. I did not find her goals selfish. Once married to the interminably sick Robert she had one goal, that being to keep him alive and aid him with his writing. Here again is another artist plagued by consumption. All medical authorities said living up in the mountain air would help. They tried Switzerland; he only grew sicker. So the warmth of the South Seas drew them, finally building their own home on a jungle covered island in Samoa. Does that sound like a dream world? Well, she built the pig-pens, planted the gardens, braved cyclones alone, continually caring for the health and career of the acclaimed author. It was a characteristic of her personality to defend the weak. And R. L.S. was the same.
She broke every rule of propriety. R.L.S. was eleven years her junior. After the author’s death she had other affairs, lived with another man, almost forty years her junior, who married her daughter when she herself died! She broke all rules.
Following travels around the world, the reader is not only given the details of family disputes, tumults and joys but also the politics of the domicile nations. As a famed couple they could pull strings and did not hesitate to do so. Fanny and R.L.S took on the fight for the underdog. They supported the machinations of Hawaiian King Kalakaua against American powers. They sought to help the lepers on Molokai. The history of the leper colony is given. R.L.S. risked his own health to visit the island, attempting to change their conditions and the public view of lepers. . They involved themselves in the civil war and international disputes of the Samoan Islands. History is detailed. To enjoy this book the reader must be interested in such history. The artist colonies in France at the turn of the century, the growth of Impressionism, the European cultural climate in art and writing at the turn of the 19th Century - all of this is covered.
This book is written a s a biography. The author separates herself from the individuals described in the pages. Fanny Stevenson is honored by some and disclaimed by others. To seek the truth, the author has thoroughly analyzed and documented her sources. In this way the reader sometimes observes rather than empathizes with the individuals. At the back of the book the sources are discussed in detail, chapter by chapter. Rather than using quotes, the lines from prime sources are put in italics in the central portion of the book. I found the numerous and lengthy sections in italics visually difficult to read, although they were skillfully woven into the narrative. For my part, the critical analysis and detachment displayed in the writing style detracted from the book’s punch.
I enjoyed learning about Fanny’s personality, her life with Robert Louis Stevenson, the blossoming world of art in France, the political climate in Hawaii, the Molokai leper colony and finally life and political tensions in Polynesia, all at the turn of the 20th Century. For this reason I give the book four stars.
Usually she was fighting somebody or something – people or illness. She was a tremendously strong woman, clearly not an easy woman to live with. She broke society’s rules over and over again. She was one determined lady, set to do exactly what was necessary to achieve her goals. I did not find her goals selfish. Once married to the interminably sick Robert she had one goal, that being to keep him alive and aid him with his writing. Here again is another artist plagued by consumption. All medical authorities said living up in the mountain air would help. They tried Switzerland; he only grew sicker. So the warmth of the South Seas drew them, finally building their own home on a jungle covered island in Samoa. Does that sound like a dream world? Well, she built the pig-pens, planted the gardens, braved cyclones alone, continually caring for the health and career of the acclaimed author. It was a characteristic of her personality to defend the weak. And R. L.S. was the same.
She broke every rule of propriety. R.L.S. was eleven years her junior. After the author’s death she had other affairs, lived with another man, almost forty years her junior, who married her daughter when she herself died! She broke all rules.
Following travels around the world, the reader is not only given the details of family disputes, tumults and joys but also the politics of the domicile nations. As a famed couple they could pull strings and did not hesitate to do so. Fanny and R.L.S took on the fight for the underdog. They supported the machinations of Hawaiian King Kalakaua against American powers. They sought to help the lepers on Molokai. The history of the leper colony is given. R.L.S. risked his own health to visit the island, attempting to change their conditions and the public view of lepers. . They involved themselves in the civil war and international disputes of the Samoan Islands. History is detailed. To enjoy this book the reader must be interested in such history. The artist colonies in France at the turn of the century, the growth of Impressionism, the European cultural climate in art and writing at the turn of the 19th Century - all of this is covered.
This book is written a s a biography. The author separates herself from the individuals described in the pages. Fanny Stevenson is honored by some and disclaimed by others. To seek the truth, the author has thoroughly analyzed and documented her sources. In this way the reader sometimes observes rather than empathizes with the individuals. At the back of the book the sources are discussed in detail, chapter by chapter. Rather than using quotes, the lines from prime sources are put in italics in the central portion of the book. I found the numerous and lengthy sections in italics visually difficult to read, although they were skillfully woven into the narrative. For my part, the critical analysis and detachment displayed in the writing style detracted from the book’s punch.
I enjoyed learning about Fanny’s personality, her life with Robert Louis Stevenson, the blossoming world of art in France, the political climate in Hawaii, the Molokai leper colony and finally life and political tensions in Polynesia, all at the turn of the 20th Century. For this reason I give the book four stars.
July 10, 2019
Era la sola donna al mondo per la quale potessi immaginare che un uomo fosse pronto a morire.
Mia moglie
Leale e profonda, viva e vera
Con occhi d’oro e di mora selvatica
Diritta come una lama
Integra come l’acciaio
È colei che l’Artefice
M’ha dato.
Furore e valore, onore e fiamma
Un amore che la vita non ha mai potuto consumare
La morte stremare
L’inferno massacrare
È colei che l’Onnipotente
M’ha dato.
Maestra e tenera, amica e amante, sposa
Compagna del cammino
Fedele fino alla fine del viaggio
Anima libera, cuore pieno di assoluto
È la donna che Dio
M’ha dato.
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
Se vi sembrano esagerazioni di un uomo innamorato perso, allora leggete questa biografia di Fanny Stevenson. Conoscerete una donna straordinaria.
Io sono rimasta a bocca aperta: non me l’aspettavo così straordinaria!
Mia moglie
Leale e profonda, viva e vera
Con occhi d’oro e di mora selvatica
Diritta come una lama
Integra come l’acciaio
È colei che l’Artefice
M’ha dato.
Furore e valore, onore e fiamma
Un amore che la vita non ha mai potuto consumare
La morte stremare
L’inferno massacrare
È colei che l’Onnipotente
M’ha dato.
Maestra e tenera, amica e amante, sposa
Compagna del cammino
Fedele fino alla fine del viaggio
Anima libera, cuore pieno di assoluto
È la donna che Dio
M’ha dato.
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
Se vi sembrano esagerazioni di un uomo innamorato perso, allora leggete questa biografia di Fanny Stevenson. Conoscerete una donna straordinaria.
Io sono rimasta a bocca aperta: non me l’aspettavo così straordinaria!
September 15, 2020
3.5/5
Tell the truth but tell it slant; approach it circuitously. The first section is Dickinson's, the second my own. Ever since the years during which I was trained to automatically gravitate towards the whitely sanitized masculinity that masquerades as notable history, I have sought to fill in the gaps while still every so often indulging in following those trajectories that still feel so comfortably familiar to my reading sensibilities. As such, I've developed a taste for nonfiction that allows me to approach via slant those much repeated, lauded, and overbearingly drowned in the limelight names of many a white boy without which conventional history would be little more than a handful of naive aphorisms and bigoted fascinations. Recently, all I need to see is that the biography of this latest white boy is not yet another white boy for me to pick it up, but for a while, I was drawn exclusively to biographies of women associated with one or more figures of fame that had also been written by women. Wives, sisters, colleagues: domestically suffocated, involuntarily institutionalized, stripped of academic credit and prestige, denied the throne through one conniving machination or another, a tale that is admittedly very white but is still worth hearing with a critical ear. Fanny Stevenson is the latest of these, the much maligned wife of Robert Louis Stevenson, and I will admit, while this wasn't the most admirably credible of nonfictional pieces, it certainly was a great deal more sensually exciting than I had anticipated, to the point that I am glad that I am contemplating a shift in reading focuses that combines the usual ideals cultivated during the last five or so years with the more familiar pastures of my youth.
This nonfictional narrative was at times repugnant (Lapierre's constant appropriation of non-white bodies to eroticize white bodies happens a good ten to fifteen times throughout the course of it, at least), at times stirring (I deeply appreciated the portrayal of the times of the Pacific Islands that read nearly as credibly as Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen), at times seducing (I don't know when I'm going to get back to Robert Louis Stevenson, but I'm seriously considering trying on 'Treasure Island' at my this relatively aged point in my life). Lapierre replicated the internal musings of historical figures with her own experiences following in their migrating footsteps, cut and spliced together letters from one or more authors for the sake of informational expediency, and converted archived transcripts into living dialogue whenever she thought she could get away with it. The only reason I don't do more than note this is due to her honest discussion of her methods in the end notes, and I'll leave it to other readers to decide whether they're interested in having such hugely subjective treatments of historical facts periodically cropping in their nonfiction reading. For my purposes, they didn't crop up substantially or often enough to majorly interrupt my flow with the need to take such with a grain of salt, indeed, the generous inclusion of written correspondence between Fanny, Louis, spouses, children, parents, friends, and naysayers counterbalanced much of the feeling of disbelief that the more handwavy sections generated. As such, I generally made my way through this in an enjoyable fashion, especially since evocations of beautiful natural landscapes and faintly purplish prose are fine by me, so long as an author isn't too frequently odiously white in their descriptions.
Beyond all that narratological talk, there was much I hadn't expected from Fanny Van de Grift then Fanny Osbourne then Fanny Stevenson. Following her first husband along a hellish inter-Oceanic trail to a lfrontier life led among indigenous people and mining towns while barely in her twenties; cultivating artistic pursuits as a more settled mother of three amongst the salons of Oakland, California and alongside the singular Marie Bashkirtseff in France; and, much further on, involving herself in the pre-colonial skirmishes that would ultimately devastate much of the native self-governance that she had learned to love and, more importantly, to respect. I liked all that I read that went against the grain of what is conventionally taught, and while Lapierre got on my nerves at times with her rhapsodizing about 'dark skin' (Stevenson looks flat white to me in all of the photographs included in this work, which span from her youngest years to her final ones) and tiny hands and whatnot, she did enough to work against standard narratives to satisfy me, even if it were only to even more effectively resist historical infantalizing treatments of RLS by building up the writer into some paragon of social justice. Still, that last part did indeed deeply interest me, and it is definitely a significant part of my motivation to revisit an author whose Jekyll and Hyde I made the acquaintance far too long ago to give any definitive date for. It's nowhere near an urgent priority, but in terms of the 'if you had to pick a white boy' test, RLS did a lot better than most, something I can now see would likely not have come to be were it not for Fanny at his side.
Overall, not the best piece of nonfiction I've ever run into when it comes to learning my truth slant, but when it comes to the timeline of my shifting reading goals, this work would have had a hard time coming during a better period. Not only does it align with my readiness to go through the more mainstream author demographics whom I've for some time relegated to molder in storage, but it also fits the bill of the kind of contemporary work that has been on my shelves for far too long that I'm focusing on reading for the rest of 2020. In addition, the very last section devoted to the Stevenson's voyages in Pacific, the one I had been looking forward to during my entire reading, ended up being so delightful that, much like I discovered with the recently read 'Ring,' it would be good for me to carve out some small amount of space for certain pieces of carefully selected genre material in my reading habits. As it commonly is these days, much of what is supremely lauded is trash and almost all of what is treasure is buried deep, but what would such endeavors be without a sense of adventure?
Tell the truth but tell it slant; approach it circuitously. The first section is Dickinson's, the second my own. Ever since the years during which I was trained to automatically gravitate towards the whitely sanitized masculinity that masquerades as notable history, I have sought to fill in the gaps while still every so often indulging in following those trajectories that still feel so comfortably familiar to my reading sensibilities. As such, I've developed a taste for nonfiction that allows me to approach via slant those much repeated, lauded, and overbearingly drowned in the limelight names of many a white boy without which conventional history would be little more than a handful of naive aphorisms and bigoted fascinations. Recently, all I need to see is that the biography of this latest white boy is not yet another white boy for me to pick it up, but for a while, I was drawn exclusively to biographies of women associated with one or more figures of fame that had also been written by women. Wives, sisters, colleagues: domestically suffocated, involuntarily institutionalized, stripped of academic credit and prestige, denied the throne through one conniving machination or another, a tale that is admittedly very white but is still worth hearing with a critical ear. Fanny Stevenson is the latest of these, the much maligned wife of Robert Louis Stevenson, and I will admit, while this wasn't the most admirably credible of nonfictional pieces, it certainly was a great deal more sensually exciting than I had anticipated, to the point that I am glad that I am contemplating a shift in reading focuses that combines the usual ideals cultivated during the last five or so years with the more familiar pastures of my youth.
This nonfictional narrative was at times repugnant (Lapierre's constant appropriation of non-white bodies to eroticize white bodies happens a good ten to fifteen times throughout the course of it, at least), at times stirring (I deeply appreciated the portrayal of the times of the Pacific Islands that read nearly as credibly as Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen), at times seducing (I don't know when I'm going to get back to Robert Louis Stevenson, but I'm seriously considering trying on 'Treasure Island' at my this relatively aged point in my life). Lapierre replicated the internal musings of historical figures with her own experiences following in their migrating footsteps, cut and spliced together letters from one or more authors for the sake of informational expediency, and converted archived transcripts into living dialogue whenever she thought she could get away with it. The only reason I don't do more than note this is due to her honest discussion of her methods in the end notes, and I'll leave it to other readers to decide whether they're interested in having such hugely subjective treatments of historical facts periodically cropping in their nonfiction reading. For my purposes, they didn't crop up substantially or often enough to majorly interrupt my flow with the need to take such with a grain of salt, indeed, the generous inclusion of written correspondence between Fanny, Louis, spouses, children, parents, friends, and naysayers counterbalanced much of the feeling of disbelief that the more handwavy sections generated. As such, I generally made my way through this in an enjoyable fashion, especially since evocations of beautiful natural landscapes and faintly purplish prose are fine by me, so long as an author isn't too frequently odiously white in their descriptions.
Beyond all that narratological talk, there was much I hadn't expected from Fanny Van de Grift then Fanny Osbourne then Fanny Stevenson. Following her first husband along a hellish inter-Oceanic trail to a lfrontier life led among indigenous people and mining towns while barely in her twenties; cultivating artistic pursuits as a more settled mother of three amongst the salons of Oakland, California and alongside the singular Marie Bashkirtseff in France; and, much further on, involving herself in the pre-colonial skirmishes that would ultimately devastate much of the native self-governance that she had learned to love and, more importantly, to respect. I liked all that I read that went against the grain of what is conventionally taught, and while Lapierre got on my nerves at times with her rhapsodizing about 'dark skin' (Stevenson looks flat white to me in all of the photographs included in this work, which span from her youngest years to her final ones) and tiny hands and whatnot, she did enough to work against standard narratives to satisfy me, even if it were only to even more effectively resist historical infantalizing treatments of RLS by building up the writer into some paragon of social justice. Still, that last part did indeed deeply interest me, and it is definitely a significant part of my motivation to revisit an author whose Jekyll and Hyde I made the acquaintance far too long ago to give any definitive date for. It's nowhere near an urgent priority, but in terms of the 'if you had to pick a white boy' test, RLS did a lot better than most, something I can now see would likely not have come to be were it not for Fanny at his side.
Overall, not the best piece of nonfiction I've ever run into when it comes to learning my truth slant, but when it comes to the timeline of my shifting reading goals, this work would have had a hard time coming during a better period. Not only does it align with my readiness to go through the more mainstream author demographics whom I've for some time relegated to molder in storage, but it also fits the bill of the kind of contemporary work that has been on my shelves for far too long that I'm focusing on reading for the rest of 2020. In addition, the very last section devoted to the Stevenson's voyages in Pacific, the one I had been looking forward to during my entire reading, ended up being so delightful that, much like I discovered with the recently read 'Ring,' it would be good for me to carve out some small amount of space for certain pieces of carefully selected genre material in my reading habits. As it commonly is these days, much of what is supremely lauded is trash and almost all of what is treasure is buried deep, but what would such endeavors be without a sense of adventure?
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill
-Robert Louis Stevenson, 'Requiem'
January 27, 2025
Quando l’aveva incontrata lungo il corso del Loing, a Parigi, era un giorno d’estate del 1876. Aveva 26 anni, Robert, un intellettuale scozzese di famiglia austera, cagionevole per via della tubercolosi e intenzionato a diventare scrittore. Lei era arrivata in Europa, dagli Stati Uniti, per fare la pittrice. Tre figli e un matrimonio concluso, Fanny aveva 11 anni più di lui. I ritratti che ci consegna Alexandra Lapierre sono sempre imprevisti e colmi di dettagli storici avvincenti, eppure dopo Belle Greene, Artemisia Gentileschi, Mura, il suo il volume Fanny Stevenson. Tra passione e libertà (e/o, pp. 720, euro 22, traduzione di Sergio Atzeni) ha una particolare spinta vitale.
«Ho letto tutta l’opera di Robert Louis Stevenson, e nelle sue prefazioni mi colpiva ogni volta il riferimento a sua moglie Fanny, una musa, la sua ispirazione e il suo sostegno totale – dice Lapierre, che oggi sarà ospite al Salone del Libro di Torino alle 12 in Sala Azzurra con Melania Mazzucco –. Anche se emergeva un carattere indocile, non era così colta eppure aveva autorità su di lui. Mi incuriosiva questa contraddizione tra l’essere considerata un angelo e subito dopo una megera».
Colpisce che i suoi libri ruotino intorno a figure sempre così attive e ardenti, amatissime e libere anche sessualmente, come lo è stata Fanny che non ha mai inteso la propria una femminilità di servizio.
È questo che consente, a lei e Robert, di avere una relazione tra pari. Stavano uno accanto all’altra e forse lui sarebbe stato ugualmente un grande scrittore ma nel caso di Dottor Jekyll e Mister Hyde è stata Fanny a dirgli di cestinare la prima versione ed è per questa ragione che lui ne dà alle stampe una seconda, diversa. Jekyll e Hyde, questo il suggerimento, non potevano essere due persone distinte ma bene e male dovevano poter convivere. Averla riscritta in questa chiave ne fa il capolavoro che oggi conosciamo. Stiamo parlando della forza incredibile di uno scrittore ma anche di un uomo innamorato che, seppure malato, affronta un viaggio fino alla California per raggiungerla e attenderla. È una unione riuscita quella tra loro, un amore sì ma anche un sodalizio.
Dopo la morte di Stevenson, nel 1894, il giornalista Edward Salisbury Field, detto Ned, rimase accanto a Fanny con una dedizione e una fedeltà rare. Aveva 38 anni meno di lei e alla sua morte, nel 1914, sposò la figlia Belle. Nel suo romanzo lei rintraccia le verità storiche e le profondità dei legami.
Il rapporto madre e figlia è di una tale modernità che non sembra davvero collocato in pieno Ottocento, così i ritratti di questi uomini che scelgono per amore di stare con donne molto più grandi di loro. È una libertà che oggi è talvolta malvista, figuriamoci nell’epoca di cui stiamo parlando. L’ossessione di rendere queste vite, quella di Fanny in particolare, di nuovo pulsante, di carne e sangue, è sempre commisurata alla fedeltà che ho verso chi mi leggerà. Quindi le verità storiche, ciò che accade, sono il frutto di lunghe ricerche in archivi e biblioteche, diari epistolari e biografie già esistenti, quando ci sono. Sicuramente è mia cura segnalare anche le lacune del percorso che intraprendo, non posso ingannare chi legge. E nemmeno posso inventare ciò che non è accaduto.
«Ho letto tutta l’opera di Robert Louis Stevenson, e nelle sue prefazioni mi colpiva ogni volta il riferimento a sua moglie Fanny, una musa, la sua ispirazione e il suo sostegno totale – dice Lapierre, che oggi sarà ospite al Salone del Libro di Torino alle 12 in Sala Azzurra con Melania Mazzucco –. Anche se emergeva un carattere indocile, non era così colta eppure aveva autorità su di lui. Mi incuriosiva questa contraddizione tra l’essere considerata un angelo e subito dopo una megera».
Colpisce che i suoi libri ruotino intorno a figure sempre così attive e ardenti, amatissime e libere anche sessualmente, come lo è stata Fanny che non ha mai inteso la propria una femminilità di servizio.
È questo che consente, a lei e Robert, di avere una relazione tra pari. Stavano uno accanto all’altra e forse lui sarebbe stato ugualmente un grande scrittore ma nel caso di Dottor Jekyll e Mister Hyde è stata Fanny a dirgli di cestinare la prima versione ed è per questa ragione che lui ne dà alle stampe una seconda, diversa. Jekyll e Hyde, questo il suggerimento, non potevano essere due persone distinte ma bene e male dovevano poter convivere. Averla riscritta in questa chiave ne fa il capolavoro che oggi conosciamo. Stiamo parlando della forza incredibile di uno scrittore ma anche di un uomo innamorato che, seppure malato, affronta un viaggio fino alla California per raggiungerla e attenderla. È una unione riuscita quella tra loro, un amore sì ma anche un sodalizio.
Dopo la morte di Stevenson, nel 1894, il giornalista Edward Salisbury Field, detto Ned, rimase accanto a Fanny con una dedizione e una fedeltà rare. Aveva 38 anni meno di lei e alla sua morte, nel 1914, sposò la figlia Belle. Nel suo romanzo lei rintraccia le verità storiche e le profondità dei legami.
Il rapporto madre e figlia è di una tale modernità che non sembra davvero collocato in pieno Ottocento, così i ritratti di questi uomini che scelgono per amore di stare con donne molto più grandi di loro. È una libertà che oggi è talvolta malvista, figuriamoci nell’epoca di cui stiamo parlando. L’ossessione di rendere queste vite, quella di Fanny in particolare, di nuovo pulsante, di carne e sangue, è sempre commisurata alla fedeltà che ho verso chi mi leggerà. Quindi le verità storiche, ciò che accade, sono il frutto di lunghe ricerche in archivi e biblioteche, diari epistolari e biografie già esistenti, quando ci sono. Sicuramente è mia cura segnalare anche le lacune del percorso che intraprendo, non posso ingannare chi legge. E nemmeno posso inventare ciò che non è accaduto.
May 28, 2025
Learned soo much, but 3 stars because I felt it went on for too long
March 29, 2014
I was fascinated with the lives of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny Osbourne. They traveled the world in search of a environment that would suit Louis's condition. I found it amazing that they traveled and lived in the harshest conditions in the mid 1800's.....and loved it!
I love biographies....and this book did not disappoint. It's a long read and most of the story I was familiar with after reading "Under the Wide and Starry Sky" by Nancy Horan which I also enjoyed tremendously.....I have been inspired to read "The Voyage Windward" and other books about the Stevenson s.
I love biographies....and this book did not disappoint. It's a long read and most of the story I was familiar with after reading "Under the Wide and Starry Sky" by Nancy Horan which I also enjoyed tremendously.....I have been inspired to read "The Voyage Windward" and other books about the Stevenson s.
May 18, 2014
Oh, Fanny.
Fanny Stevenson endured a marriage of hardship and a philandering husband. Determined to study art, she took the brave step to leave the U.S. with her children in tow. Meeting Robert Louis Stevenson at an artist colony, she fell in love head over heels. They had an amazing life together.
I like reading biographies to fill in the details so often left out in the fleeting memory of fame.
Great book about a woman before her time.
Fanny Stevenson endured a marriage of hardship and a philandering husband. Determined to study art, she took the brave step to leave the U.S. with her children in tow. Meeting Robert Louis Stevenson at an artist colony, she fell in love head over heels. They had an amazing life together.
I like reading biographies to fill in the details so often left out in the fleeting memory of fame.
Great book about a woman before her time.
April 19, 2010
This was an interesting and fun read, despite being horrifically long. For some odd reason, I thought the first half of the book about her life with her first husband was more interesting than her famous life with Robert Louis Stevensen. And I don't think she was a "violent" person at all. I think she went through horrendous trials that strained her to exhaustion both mentally and physically.
September 8, 2024
Lungo e tortuoso il percorso che porta alla conclusione di questo epico romanzo biografico. Attraverso la sapiente narrazione di Lapierre, conosciamo uno dei personaggi più controversi della storia: Fanny Stevenson. Leggendaria, indomita, scomoda, ma soprattutto grande avventuriera. Un libro da leggere con la placida calma delle serate estive.
July 16, 2009
I would rather read a biography than just about anything else and this re-enforces my love of that genre. This is an extraordinary story of the woman behind Robert Louise Stevenson.
November 15, 2012
Excellent book. I love well written stories about real people who lived their life with inner dignity and courage!
October 28, 2024
It's nice to be pleasantly surprised: I wasn't expecting much from a fictionalized biography (which I read in French), but this was well-written and well-put-together, with invented dialogue and thoughts, of course, together with quotations from actual letters (in italics) and speculations of the author and occasional references to her reactions to places visited or archive material (but only occasional, this wasn't a parallel story of a past life and the present search to understand it). The fictional form allows Lapierre to speculate and recreate moments that are difficult for us to understand, such as Fanny's decision in 1875 to go from California to Antwerp and then Paris with her three children, to study art with her teenage daughter, with no contacts, no information about where to study and only a small allowance from her estranged husband—this needs a lot of recreation of thoughts and feelings to recreate and the fictional form helps it. This long work must have taken years to research and write, but I found it fascinating.
August 11, 2022
Je me suis aussi souvenue que j’avais lu l’extraordinaire biographie de l’épouse de Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny. Écrit par la superbe plume d’Alexandra Lapierre. Une femme incroyable qui, tel un chat, a vécu neuf vies… Quand on lit le récit de sa vie, on se demande comment elle a fait pour passer au travers de ces événements qui composent sa vie. Trois maris, accouchements improbables, maladie incurable, misère inimaginable… Un roman savoureux!!! J’ai tellement adoré ce livre que j’ai lu les annexes en entier!!!
March 3, 2020
Trop longue. Trop mélodramatique. Trop de passages qui décrivent le monologue intérieur de personnages (comment peut-on savoir? Soit c’est une biographie, soit c’est une nouvelle. Ceci est un mélange des deux). Mais l’histoire même à des moments interessants: pour moi les plus interessants était le séjour dans les mines d’or de San Francisco; et les voyages dans les lies Pacifiques.
January 20, 2025
Ci ho impiegato mesi a finirlo perché alterna passaggi interessanti e a buon ritmo a parentesi lente, ricche di dettagli e a tratti noiose.
La parte storica sulla contestualizzazione geopolitica delle Isole Samoa interessa ma appesantisce il racconto.
Resta Fanny, un personaggio eccezionale, eclettico, industrioso e…follemente innamorata, del suo uomo e della vita in senso lato.
La parte storica sulla contestualizzazione geopolitica delle Isole Samoa interessa ma appesantisce il racconto.
Resta Fanny, un personaggio eccezionale, eclettico, industrioso e…follemente innamorata, del suo uomo e della vita in senso lato.
September 3, 2023
J ai trouve les descriptions tres longues mais kivre interessant sur la vie de robert louis stevenson racontee par sa femme Fany qu il epouse alors qu elle a deja eu 2 enfants avec un autre mari aux etats unis en 1876.
January 12, 2025
Histoire passionnante de Fanny Stevenson. Alexandra Lapierre réhabilite la femme de RJ Stevenson, celle qui a inspiré, encouragé et soigné l’auteur de L’île aux trésors
Le livre est un peu long, moins captivant que celui sur Belle Greene.
Le livre est un peu long, moins captivant que celui sur Belle Greene.
July 9, 2020
Que dire, une passion pour ce livre - puis je bloque vers les trois quarts, impossible de continuer... quelques scènes extrêmement dures
September 21, 2021
I just loved this book. I read it several years ago. So much so that I had to travel to Samoa to visit their home. An amazing story and woman.
March 20, 2022
Amazing life story.
April 2, 2022
Wonderful book about the life of the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson
October 27, 2022
Loved this book for the characters description and the tales of RLS.
September 23, 2025
noiosino
August 26, 2024
Non vedevo l'ora di conoscere Fanny, e di gustarmi lunghe notti insonni in sua compagnia, e invece. Ho trovato una Lapierre, così avvincente e coinvolgente con Belle, prolissa e faticosa, a tratti illeggibile. Mannaggia.
August 28, 2024
A fabulously told biography. When Fanny's first marriage entered a rocky phase (somewhat literal), she rejoined her family and then left for Europe with her young son to became a painter. There, in an artists colony, she met R.L. Stevenson's brother and then the fragile R.L Stevenson, 11 years her junior. Alexandra Lapierre's research allows her to frame their life together with intimate detail. In the Notes section, Lapierre describes the sources she found for each section of the biography. From the beginning to the end I found this 500 plus page biography mesmerizing.
May 12, 2012
Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne Stevenson was a remarkable woman who seemed to live several different lives in one lifespan. She traveled back and forth between the civilized world and the barbarous regions at the edge of society, not with aplomb, but with gritty determination. One of her acquaintances said that you either loved her or hated her. I loved to read about her and definitely admire her pluck, but am not quite sure what I would have thought of Fanny Stevenson had our paths crossed in real life.
As to how the book was written, I have my problems with Ms. LaPierre. Is this a biography or a novelization? Parts of the book are dramatized and if this were a novel, and scenes are acted out, and told from various viewpoints of the characters involved. These are not “characters,” however, but real people. I would rather have read a straight biography of this fascinating woman than have scenes enacted. We get an almost moment-by-moment description of what went on in Fanny’s mind and life while she decided whether to stay with her husband or leave him for RLS, but other phases or her life are skimmed over. She meets RLS while he is baring earning a living as a writer, and once she marries him he is a famous author. When exactly did this happen? We see her mental illness from her daughter’s prospective, who thinks to herself, “Oh, I should have mentioned to the doctor that mother thought she was pregnant with ten babies, and made the house she was building especially large to accommodate them all.” What?!?!?! Not enough facts for a biography; not enough insight for a novel.
I have given it four stars mainly because I found Fanny so interesting.
As to how the book was written, I have my problems with Ms. LaPierre. Is this a biography or a novelization? Parts of the book are dramatized and if this were a novel, and scenes are acted out, and told from various viewpoints of the characters involved. These are not “characters,” however, but real people. I would rather have read a straight biography of this fascinating woman than have scenes enacted. We get an almost moment-by-moment description of what went on in Fanny’s mind and life while she decided whether to stay with her husband or leave him for RLS, but other phases or her life are skimmed over. She meets RLS while he is baring earning a living as a writer, and once she marries him he is a famous author. When exactly did this happen? We see her mental illness from her daughter’s prospective, who thinks to herself, “Oh, I should have mentioned to the doctor that mother thought she was pregnant with ten babies, and made the house she was building especially large to accommodate them all.” What?!?!?! Not enough facts for a biography; not enough insight for a novel.
I have given it four stars mainly because I found Fanny so interesting.
January 18, 2012
I give this tome four stars, because it is exhaustive in it's content. I'm not entirely sure how the author could have pared it down without sacrificing the readers' ability to know their subject, Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne Stevenson, wife of Robert Louis Stevenson. She lived quite an interesting life, with her travels being at the forefront of her story. She seems to me like an accidentally worldly person; her first husband's fortune-seeking put her on a path of following him around the country. Then as a wife and mother, she was lacking personal satisfaction, and so headed to Europe to pursue artistic endeavors. There she met RLS, eventually decided to end her marriage to the philandering Sam Osbourne, and marry Stevenson. Quite scandalous in those days! The courage she had in building a life for herself and Stevenson on the Samoan islands is remarkable. She practically built their house herself, with few supplies and even less help. Her passion is also worth noting-she kept RLS alive by being willing to live wherever in the world his illness would go into remission. She knew that she could keep him alive by sheer determination, and she did. What I found most interesting about Fanny was her will to keep building and rebuilding her own life after her significant losses. All in all, an interesting biography of a woman I knew nothing about beforehand.
January 8, 2014
Why I will not read Under the Wide and Starry Sky" Under the wide and starry sky " by Nancy Horan, even though I fairly liked Loving Frank. Simply because The WomenThe women by TC Boyle was great and much more then Loving frank .
And now with this new book it is the same only reverse I have read Fanny Stevenson: A Romance of DestinyFanny Stevenson : between Passion and freedom by Alexandra Lapierre.
A wonderful story. It was fun and fast to read. The book focused mainly on stevenson's wife and it was good. But I am not sure I need to read another one . So if someone has read Nancy Horan book and Lapierre's book I would love to read about their comments.
I hate to pass a good book!
And now with this new book it is the same only reverse I have read Fanny Stevenson: A Romance of DestinyFanny Stevenson : between Passion and freedom by Alexandra Lapierre.
A wonderful story. It was fun and fast to read. The book focused mainly on stevenson's wife and it was good. But I am not sure I need to read another one . So if someone has read Nancy Horan book and Lapierre's book I would love to read about their comments.
I hate to pass a good book!
August 19, 2012
This is an excellent biography of Robert Louis Stevenson's wife translated from French. It is well documented, well written, and well translated. What a strong, strong woman who knows what she wants and goes after it often to the detriment of others and eventually to herself. She lives for the moment with little thought of consequences as long as adventure is involved. She devotes her life to keeping the frail RLS alive, his writing and his happiness all intertwined! Their family dynamics, their travels, and their devotion to each other are all fascinating. I read this for a book club meeting scheduled for next week, and I am excited for the discussion to begin!
January 26, 2008
This book looks at the fascinating life of Fanny Stevenson, the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson. She was born in mid-America and came to be the driving force in the career and life of the famous Scottish author. Both of their stories are vastly interesting. They are, of course, intensely complex individuals. She, much more so than he. This is one of the best biographies that I have ever read. Meticulously researched and expertly written. It is out of print, but look for it at the library or buy it used. You won't regret it.
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