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Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson
From a critically acclaimed biographer, an engrossing narrative of Robert Louis Stevenson’s life, a story as romantic and adventurous as his fiction
“This magnificent biography of Robert Louis Stevenson reveals much about a writer that we think we knew. . . . Dazzling.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) is famed for Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but he published many other novels and stories before his death at forty-four. Despite lifelong ill health, he had immense vitality; Mark Twain said his eyes burned with “smoldering rich fire.” Born in Edinburgh to a family of lighthouse engineers, Stevenson set many stories in Scotland but sought travel and adventure in a life as romantic as his novels. “I loved a ship,” he wrote, “as a man loves burgundy or daybreak.” The adventures were shared with his free-spirited American wife, Fanny, with whom he moved to the South Pacific.
Samoan friends named Stevenson “Storyteller.” Reading, he said, “should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt clean out of ourselves.” His own books have been translated into dozens of languages. Jorge Luis Borges called his stories “one of the forms of happiness,” and other modernist masters as various as Proust, Nabokov, and Calvino have paid tribute to his greatness as a literary artist.
In Storyteller, Leo Damrosch brings to life an unforgettable personality, illuminated by many who knew Stevenson well and drawing from thousands of the writer’s letters in his many voices and moods—playful, imaginative, at times tragic.
“This magnificent biography of Robert Louis Stevenson reveals much about a writer that we think we knew. . . . Dazzling.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) is famed for Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but he published many other novels and stories before his death at forty-four. Despite lifelong ill health, he had immense vitality; Mark Twain said his eyes burned with “smoldering rich fire.” Born in Edinburgh to a family of lighthouse engineers, Stevenson set many stories in Scotland but sought travel and adventure in a life as romantic as his novels. “I loved a ship,” he wrote, “as a man loves burgundy or daybreak.” The adventures were shared with his free-spirited American wife, Fanny, with whom he moved to the South Pacific.
Samoan friends named Stevenson “Storyteller.” Reading, he said, “should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt clean out of ourselves.” His own books have been translated into dozens of languages. Jorge Luis Borges called his stories “one of the forms of happiness,” and other modernist masters as various as Proust, Nabokov, and Calvino have paid tribute to his greatness as a literary artist.
In Storyteller, Leo Damrosch brings to life an unforgettable personality, illuminated by many who knew Stevenson well and drawing from thousands of the writer’s letters in his many voices and moods—playful, imaginative, at times tragic.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
834 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 2, 2025
About the author
Leo Damrosch
21 books116 followersLeo Damrosch is an American author and professor. In 2001, he was named the Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University.[1] He received a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. His areas of academic specialty include Romanticism, the Enlightenment, and Puritanism.[1] Damrosch's "The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus" is one of the most important recent explorations of the early history of the Society of Friends. His Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius (2005) was a National Book Award finalist for nonfiction and winner of the 2006 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award for best work of nonfiction. Among his other books are "Symbol and Truth in Blake's Myth" (1980), "God's Plot and Man's Stories: Studies in the Fictional Imagination from Milton to Fielding" (1985), "Fictions of Reality in the Age of Hume and Johnson" (1987), and "Tocqueville's Discovery of America" (2010).
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 30, 2025
I can only admire the work of the biographer who manages to read through and dominate a whole sea of documents in a few years and then selects and orders information into a history and study of a life. In this case, Damrosch has left eighteenth-century British writers (about whom he has written several books and whose archives and secondary works he knows very well) and has bravely tackled a different century and type of writer.
His biography of Stevenson is notable for various reasons: 1. he quotes a range of other biographers to create an idea of the subject (Stevenson, the other significant players and critical moments) seen from different angles; 2. he quotes extensively from the essays and letters to illustrate Stevenson's world-view; 3. the organization, the division into chapters and short sections, is masterful; 4. he tells the story well and keeps up the narrative tension.
There are aspects open to criticism: 1. there are occasional factual errors (of the type 'Fonatinebleau is north of Paris' when it is south); 2. the narrative is of Stevenson's attainment of his familiar works, with the essays ignored as an aspect of his achievement, and other works dismissed in a few disparaging words: Travels with a Donkey ('reviewers were not reassured'), The New Arabian Nights ('completely overshadowed by Louis's later achievements), The Master of Ballantrae ('fails to deliver on its promises'), Prince Otto (written 'to appeal to the market'), The Ebb-Tide ('disappointing'), The Bottle Imp [summarized as 'A young Hawaiian couple fall in love, manage to get rid of the bottle in time and live happily ever after']); 3. it is possible to question some of his interpretations of motives and occasional unquestioning acceptance of testimony written decades after the events—the first comes into the area of common differences of opinion about others, the second perhaps a fault in the historian and biographer. To balance this last comment, most discussions of motives and marshaling of witness testimony is done well—only occasionally I did not agree (and that is perhaps inevitable).
But on balance, one can only admire the achievement: in particular, the skill of narration and organization and the mastery of many secondary sources. There will always be errors, and differences of approach and opinion are the privilege of each individual. I finished the volume with a sense of pleasure at being transported easily over interesting and varied terrain by a kind (if very occasionally inaccurate) guide. (But no-one is perfect.)
His biography of Stevenson is notable for various reasons: 1. he quotes a range of other biographers to create an idea of the subject (Stevenson, the other significant players and critical moments) seen from different angles; 2. he quotes extensively from the essays and letters to illustrate Stevenson's world-view; 3. the organization, the division into chapters and short sections, is masterful; 4. he tells the story well and keeps up the narrative tension.
There are aspects open to criticism: 1. there are occasional factual errors (of the type 'Fonatinebleau is north of Paris' when it is south); 2. the narrative is of Stevenson's attainment of his familiar works, with the essays ignored as an aspect of his achievement, and other works dismissed in a few disparaging words: Travels with a Donkey ('reviewers were not reassured'), The New Arabian Nights ('completely overshadowed by Louis's later achievements), The Master of Ballantrae ('fails to deliver on its promises'), Prince Otto (written 'to appeal to the market'), The Ebb-Tide ('disappointing'), The Bottle Imp [summarized as 'A young Hawaiian couple fall in love, manage to get rid of the bottle in time and live happily ever after']); 3. it is possible to question some of his interpretations of motives and occasional unquestioning acceptance of testimony written decades after the events—the first comes into the area of common differences of opinion about others, the second perhaps a fault in the historian and biographer. To balance this last comment, most discussions of motives and marshaling of witness testimony is done well—only occasionally I did not agree (and that is perhaps inevitable).
But on balance, one can only admire the achievement: in particular, the skill of narration and organization and the mastery of many secondary sources. There will always be errors, and differences of approach and opinion are the privilege of each individual. I finished the volume with a sense of pleasure at being transported easily over interesting and varied terrain by a kind (if very occasionally inaccurate) guide. (But no-one is perfect.)
October 14, 2025
Comparatively recent work on retrieving Stevenson’s letters has enabled Damrosch to re-create the flavor of Stevenson’s mind through direct quotation … Despite illness and misdiagnosis, his life was seasoned with adventure just like his most beloved works … This magnificent biography encourages their re-reading … absolutely stellar …
December 31, 2025
Interesting and well-researched, "Storyteller" takes the reader through the many phases of Robert Louis Stevenson's life, with attention paid to his writings. It took a long time for Stevenson to hit his full power as a novelist, with works like Treasure Island and Kidnapped, still read today, though often unfairly dismissed as children's books. Damrosch cites critics at the time in praising the spareness of Stevenson's style, never describing the details of a scene, but rather describing how the scene felt to the characters, bringing the action and setting to life. The book slowed a bit with the move to Samoa, with more information about governance of the island nation that I found interesting, but overall a very satisfying biography.
March 7, 2026
My favorite Robert Lewis Stevenson poem
ESCAPE AT BEDTIME
The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out
Through the blinds and the windows and bars;
And high overhead and all moving about,
There were thousands of millions of stars.
There ne’er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,
Nor of people in church or the Park,
As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,
And that glittered and winked in the dark.
The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all,
And the star of the sailor, and Mars,
These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall
Would be half full of water and stars.
They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,
And they soon had me packed into bed;
But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,
And the stars going round in my head.
From A Child’s Garden of Verses, first published 1885
I enjoyed this biography for the most part. I wasn’t much interested in RLS’s childhood. He was an only child, sickly and bullied. His parents were of a rather grim religious faith (Calvinistic). When RLS declared himself an atheist when he was a young man, it caused a major rift in the family. His parents took it personally. It took years for the animosity to fade. RLS felt guilty about it all his life. He also felt guilty for not going into the family engineering company. His grandfather was famous for a lighthouse he built and his father was a success in the engineering business.
RLS decided to become a lawyer but not due to any love of the law, just as an escape from engineering. He was only actively a lawyer for a short time. He’d wanted to be an author since he was six.
RLS was in poor health all his life. He had a lung disease that was never diagnosed conclusively. He had great debilitating bouts of coughing that caused hemorrhaging. He would be extremely weak and underweight all of his life. He spent much time bedridden.
He wrote essays on varying subjects, often about travel/places. He was late getting started writing books.
He fell in love with a married woman, Fanny Osbourne, who divorced her husband and married RLS. She had two living children who became part of RLS’s household.
Fanny was also a writer and an artist and was helpful to Stevenson as a critic, a caregiver, and partner. When he wrote a draft of Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde. He read it aloud to Fanny and she tried not to comment but he pressed her, so she told him, “You’ve missed the point!” She felt it was an allegory, not just a simple story. RLS was angered by the criticism, but after thinking about it, felt she was right, and he rewrote it. It was a success.
His book, Treasure Island, was serialized and enormously popular, and RLS finally made decent money from his work. His books immediately after Treasure Island weren’t well-received.
The part of the bio I enjoyed the most was the many quotes from well-known authors about RLS’s book and his abilities.
Damrosch includes many examples from the book Kidnapped with quotes and comments about the style. I was really interested in those.
RLS and Fanny travelled and settled in several places, sometimes because of his illness. It was a common prescription: a change of location to colder climates. RLS didn’t enjoy being cold. They finally sailed the Pacific and settled in warm Samoa, where they lived for the last 4 years of Stevenson’s life.
RLS died Dec 3, 1894 (44 years old). He said he “was not born for age.”
Robert Louis Stevenson is buried in Samoa. His poem, Requiem., is inscribed on his tomb;
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
This be the verse you grave for me;
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And hunter home from the hill.
The author of the bio, Damrosch, sums up RLS this way:
“Born to privilege, destined for a comfortable life and a respected profession, Louis rebelled against conventions of every kind. During his intermittent schooling and his university years, he never fit in, and his teachers regarded him as unpromising. Meanwhile, he was learning to think and imagine for himself, developing the skills that would create “Thrawn Janet,” “The Merry Men,” “The Beach of Falsesa,” Treasure Island, Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, and Catriona. If he had been granted a normal life span, there would have been more.”
ESCAPE AT BEDTIME
The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out
Through the blinds and the windows and bars;
And high overhead and all moving about,
There were thousands of millions of stars.
There ne’er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,
Nor of people in church or the Park,
As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,
And that glittered and winked in the dark.
The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all,
And the star of the sailor, and Mars,
These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall
Would be half full of water and stars.
They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,
And they soon had me packed into bed;
But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,
And the stars going round in my head.
From A Child’s Garden of Verses, first published 1885
I enjoyed this biography for the most part. I wasn’t much interested in RLS’s childhood. He was an only child, sickly and bullied. His parents were of a rather grim religious faith (Calvinistic). When RLS declared himself an atheist when he was a young man, it caused a major rift in the family. His parents took it personally. It took years for the animosity to fade. RLS felt guilty about it all his life. He also felt guilty for not going into the family engineering company. His grandfather was famous for a lighthouse he built and his father was a success in the engineering business.
RLS decided to become a lawyer but not due to any love of the law, just as an escape from engineering. He was only actively a lawyer for a short time. He’d wanted to be an author since he was six.
RLS was in poor health all his life. He had a lung disease that was never diagnosed conclusively. He had great debilitating bouts of coughing that caused hemorrhaging. He would be extremely weak and underweight all of his life. He spent much time bedridden.
He wrote essays on varying subjects, often about travel/places. He was late getting started writing books.
He fell in love with a married woman, Fanny Osbourne, who divorced her husband and married RLS. She had two living children who became part of RLS’s household.
Fanny was also a writer and an artist and was helpful to Stevenson as a critic, a caregiver, and partner. When he wrote a draft of Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde. He read it aloud to Fanny and she tried not to comment but he pressed her, so she told him, “You’ve missed the point!” She felt it was an allegory, not just a simple story. RLS was angered by the criticism, but after thinking about it, felt she was right, and he rewrote it. It was a success.
His book, Treasure Island, was serialized and enormously popular, and RLS finally made decent money from his work. His books immediately after Treasure Island weren’t well-received.
The part of the bio I enjoyed the most was the many quotes from well-known authors about RLS’s book and his abilities.
Damrosch includes many examples from the book Kidnapped with quotes and comments about the style. I was really interested in those.
RLS and Fanny travelled and settled in several places, sometimes because of his illness. It was a common prescription: a change of location to colder climates. RLS didn’t enjoy being cold. They finally sailed the Pacific and settled in warm Samoa, where they lived for the last 4 years of Stevenson’s life.
RLS died Dec 3, 1894 (44 years old). He said he “was not born for age.”
Robert Louis Stevenson is buried in Samoa. His poem, Requiem., is inscribed on his tomb;
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
This be the verse you grave for me;
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And hunter home from the hill.
The author of the bio, Damrosch, sums up RLS this way:
“Born to privilege, destined for a comfortable life and a respected profession, Louis rebelled against conventions of every kind. During his intermittent schooling and his university years, he never fit in, and his teachers regarded him as unpromising. Meanwhile, he was learning to think and imagine for himself, developing the skills that would create “Thrawn Janet,” “The Merry Men,” “The Beach of Falsesa,” Treasure Island, Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, and Catriona. If he had been granted a normal life span, there would have been more.”
November 28, 2025
Another triumph from Leo Damrosch. Author of great literary biographies on The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age, Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch, Adventurer: The Life and Times of Giacomo Casanova, and Eternity's Sunrise: The Imaginative World of William Blake, the reader enters the world of adventure with Robert Louis Stevenson, a popular author who died far too young but left a large imprint.
Born into the highly literate world of Edinburgh, but also outside of the literary mainstream, RLS lived a life of adventure like his own tales. He was never fated to live to old age as he developed consumption (tuberculosis) and married a woman who was mistreated by her husband. He met his end in the Pacific islands on Samoa, worshipped by those who knew him and highly revered by no less a writer than Henry James. We remember him for Jekyll and Hyde, Treasure Island, and Kidnapped. For that alone, we should be grateful.
Damrosch always gets to the heart of the matter and he does here. Beautifully illustrated and a pleasure to read, I couldn't recommend this book more for those interested in an author whose star burned brightly and fiercely and left a long trail of illumination. Well done, RLS and well done, Mr. Damrosch.
Born into the highly literate world of Edinburgh, but also outside of the literary mainstream, RLS lived a life of adventure like his own tales. He was never fated to live to old age as he developed consumption (tuberculosis) and married a woman who was mistreated by her husband. He met his end in the Pacific islands on Samoa, worshipped by those who knew him and highly revered by no less a writer than Henry James. We remember him for Jekyll and Hyde, Treasure Island, and Kidnapped. For that alone, we should be grateful.
Damrosch always gets to the heart of the matter and he does here. Beautifully illustrated and a pleasure to read, I couldn't recommend this book more for those interested in an author whose star burned brightly and fiercely and left a long trail of illumination. Well done, RLS and well done, Mr. Damrosch.
April 23, 2026
Audio. This took me a couple months to get through. It was a great narrator and fascinating life but 19 hours is still 19 hours. Couple things especially struck me:
1. Always sad when well meaning spiritual/religious parents do such a number on their kids that faith is off the table for said child. I wanted to scoop up little boy Stevenson and tell him that he could have Jesus and faith outside of the extreme Puritan home he was raised in.
2. His health all through his life was incredibly hard and yet, through that, some of his most amazing writing was born. Such a tangible reminder how God uses hard things.
1. Always sad when well meaning spiritual/religious parents do such a number on their kids that faith is off the table for said child. I wanted to scoop up little boy Stevenson and tell him that he could have Jesus and faith outside of the extreme Puritan home he was raised in.
2. His health all through his life was incredibly hard and yet, through that, some of his most amazing writing was born. Such a tangible reminder how God uses hard things.
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May 11, 2026Doorstopper biography of great Scot. I thought the first 150 pages a bit of a slog. Stevenson was plagued by religious doubts and unable to find his feet as writer. The best part is Damrosch's explanation of Treasure Island a book I remember my dad getting me from the library when I was young. Constantly bedevilled by bad health it is remarkable he wrote as much as he did. Wife Fanny is given a suitably large role in the book. She was RLS's hero. I vaguely thought about checking out some RLS fiction but the prose included here suggests the pace of 19th century writing is too slow for us now.
January 12, 2026
The best part of this book were the many photographs including a portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson as a young boy with his mother. He was wearing a dress as apparently it was common then to have boys wear girl’s clothes. It made me wonder what people today that criticize parents for letting children identify as different genders would say.
December 19, 2025
As far as I can remember, I’ve never read a book by RLS. But, that didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying this biography. In fact as the author desired, it has made me want to read some of his stories.
November 5, 2025
Great resource!
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January 9, 2026What an interesting life.
February 11, 2026
Excellent bio of a literary genius.
May 6, 2026
Superb and richly adventurous biography of late R.L. Stevenson.
June 9, 2026
Marvelously detailed and entertaining story of Stevenson’s life.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews