Robert Lyuis Stivenson

Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish writer and poet, the author of world-famous adventure novels and novellas, and the leading representative of English neo-romanticism.

He was born on 13 November 1850 in Edinburgh into the family of an engineer. At baptism he was given the name Robert Louis Balfour, but in зрелом возрасте he renounced it, changing his surname to Stevenson and the spelling of his second name from Lewis to Louis (without changing the pronunciation).

From youth Robert had a bent for technical pursuits. After finishing school he entered the University of Edinburgh. Having chosen law, he qualified as an advocate, but he is unlikely ever to have practised, since ill health on the one hand and his first successes in literature on the other persuaded him to prefer writing to the law. From 1873 to 1879 he lived mainly in France on the meagre earnings of a promising literary beginner and occasional remittances from home, and became a familiar figure in the “villages” of French artists. This period also includes Stevenson’s travels through France, Germany, and his native Scotland, which resulted in his first two books of travel impressions — An Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879). The essays written during this period were collected by him in Virginibus Puerisque (1881).

In the French village of Grèz, known for its gatherings and meetings of artists, Robert Louis met Frances Mathilda (Vandegrift) Osbourne, an American woman ten years older than he and interested in painting. Having separated from her husband, she lived with her children in Europe. Stevenson fell deeply in love with her, and as soon as the divorce was granted, on 19 May 1880, the lovers were married in San Francisco. Their life together was marked by Fanny’s constant care for her sick husband. Stevenson became friends with her children, and later his stepson (Samuel) Lloyd Osbourne became coauthor of three of his books: The Wrong Box (1889), The Ebb-Tide. A Trio and a Quartette (1894), and The Castaways of Soledad (189