Of Stevenson's Early Inspirations Date Back example essay topic

James Hoffa Eng. 113 sec. 03 T-Tr 8 am 3-22-01 Research Paper Robert Louis Stevenson was once criticized shortly after his death, by Frank Swinnerton as being out of fashion and questioned his literary greatness because of his vast changes in taste and style. Not since the assumption of the Earth to be flat has such a statement been false. Stevenson has taken our imaginations to far off lands where swashbucklers and adventurers live just as they did centuries ago.

Stricken by illness for the greater part of his life, Stevenson could not live up to the extent of adventure that called his name from beyond. His passion was satisfied by telling tales of adventure for many generations to come. Stevenson's vast spectrum of taste and style only supports his recognition as one of the classic novelists. Throughout many of his works he often speaks of the timeless area on Earth that many a man has looked to for answers, the open seas. Many of his novels, short stories, and poems take place or refer back to this land of curiosity. Some of Stevenson's early inspirations date back to when he first enrolled as a student of Edinburgh University.

He received his first taste for adventure on a summer vacation in Anstruther and Wick where he did summer work as a diver for a civil engineer, specializing in marine operations. When looking back at this time, Stevenson referred to it as " one of the best things I got from my education as an engineer". During his summer vacation of 1871, he spent some time on the small island of Earraid off Mull, which would capture an image in his mind that would not come out again until he described the scene of David Balfours's shipwreck in Kidnapped. It would be these times that he would later reflect upon when his health and youth had slipped away from him and write the following: Sing me a song of a lad that is gone Say could that lad be I? Merry of soul, he sailed on a day Over the sea to Skye. Mull was astern, Rum on the port, Egg on the starboard bow; Glory of youth glowed in his soul: Where is that glory now?

Give me again all that was there, Give me the sun that shone! Give me the eyes, give me the soul, Give me the lad that's gone! Stevenson's first published book was a tale from his adventures on the waters, but it was not the high seas that he first told of. An Inland Voyage told his stories of a canoe trip that was taken in the summer of 1876 by a close friend and himself.

The trip began on the Scheldt at Antwerp, and paddled along canals and navigated the Oise, returning back to the Long. The voyage itself was very peaceful and self-satisfying, but yielded little tales of action and adventure. The greatest benefit of this trip could have been that it gave Stevenson a chance to observe different small towns along the water and the people that occupied them. In many of his works his attention to the characteristics of people native to a particular land, has set him apart from other authors. .".. it's such fun just to give way & let your pen go off with you into the uttermost parts of the earth & the mountains of the moon". With his health always hindering, Stevenson had to constrain his adventures, or they had to come from his own imagination. Although he would not have spoke of it in this way or acknowledged it, his travels took place not for his sake, but for his pen's sake.

As he did years before when An Inland Voyage was written, Stevenson set out this time to the Cevennes with a large notebook, a homemade sleeping bag, and his thoughts. It was during this time that he wrote Travels with a Donkey. It followed the same pattern as An Inland Voyage, told of the villages and town folk encountered on the way, but still was separated from his own feelings. The story and journey was thought to be written during a time of self therapy, but touched little on his philosophies, just the observance people of foreign lands and their reactions with each other.

His talents of capturing the persona of his characters can be traced back to these early adventures. While reflecting back one day on those times he had spent in Earraid, Stevenson began to play with his stepsons toy paints, by drawing what he imagined the island would look like from overhead. The painting quickly turned into a fictitious treasure map, and his mind fell back to a brick mason he had met on that island, working on a lighthouse. The mason's name was John Silver and he suddenly fit perfectly into the picture as a character not that of a mason, but one of piracy. Stevenson immediately began scribbling down a story he called The Sea Cook, which would later be renamed to one of his most famous books, Treasure Island. When looking back at the book, the hero of the tale, Jim Hawkins, does not seem to have as great of significance in our memories.

The memorable characters are those that were such greatly personified as the villains. Billy Bones, Long John Silver, and the characters that were driven by greed and deceit as the main qualities of their character, stick freshly in our minds. To many John Silver was the hero of the book, as Jim Hawkins slips out of our memory. Stevenson made people admire those characters that he had so much wanted to portray himself in life.

Stevenson's most productive and inspirational voyage was spent on an eighteen month trip to the South Pacific, island hopping. This trip would perfect his realm of characters he was assembling in his thoughts. Along with his spirits improving, his health took a surprising turn for the better. He had completed many unfinished books during this time, but it was after a stay in Samoa that he completed what he thought had been one of the best things he had done. Stevenson looked back on The Beach of Fale sa with great satisfaction". You will know more of the South Seas after you have read my little tale than if you had read a library".

Stevenson raved. The story revealed cultures and an English dialect that could only be captured by someone who had spent a great deal of time there, observing and collecting thoughts. Many sea traders frequented this island giving Stevenson an array of charters and cultures to inspire him. The sea is a very vast area that collects the most interesting of people. The dialect was observed accurately with the accent captured in the pronunciation of such words like Baptist as "Papist".

Local traditions such as traders stopping for a brief stay on the island were able to purchase the hand of one of the many village girls in marriage, only to abandon them as soon as the ship set sail. It is within these small details that Stevenson captured, that intrigued the readers and painted a vivid picture in their minds. Throughout his short lived life, Robert Louis Stevenson lived many adventures firsthand, and a thousand in his imagination. His works have always been looked upon as.