Lanterna Rally

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Publisher:

Published: 2020-07-12

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13:

Robert Louis Stevenson is best known for his The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and his two novels that would now be classified as Young Adult literature, Treasure Island and Kidnapped. The Scottish author had an uncanny talent for both adventure tales and character development, a combination so rare in literary history. His Long John Silver remains the archetype of the kindly pirate, including Captain Jack Sparrow of the immensely popular Pirates of the Caribbean movie series. Stevenson was a sickly man, and even as a child he spent much of his time in bed. These hours were not wasted, however, as the young man read voraciously and developed a keen sense of literary style. Stevenson went on to study law as a backup to his literary career, and he soon began to publish essays, short stories, and poems in various journals. Despite his poor health, Stevenson also traveled widely, enjoying a rather Bohemian life of the late Victorian world. The Suicide Club was first published in London Magazine in 1878 and later in his first collection of stories New Arabian Nights. It introduces Stevenson's detective, Prince Florizel of Bohemia, a reference to Shakespeare's play A Winter's Tale, and his companion Colonel Geraldine. The three stories in this collection revolve around Florizel's infiltration of the underground Suicide Club, an institution for desperate men who want to end their lives but fear the consequences of suicide for their family and friends. Each part has its own mystery and only in the last story does Florizel finally upend the treacherous group.Written nine years before the first Sherlock Holmes story, Stevenson helped to build the burgeoning detective genre in English. Although Florizel is not as well known today as Arthur Conan Doyle's creation, the contemporary genre owes as much to Stevenson as it does to Doyle himself.