Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa

by Joseph Farrell

Overview

Shortlised for the Saltire Society Non Fiction Book of the Year Award

Almost every adult and child is familiar with his Treasure Island, but few know that Robert Louis Stevenson lived out his last years on an equally remote island, which was squabbled over by colonial powers much as Captain Flint's treasure was contested by the mongrel crew of the Hispaniola.

In 1890 Stevenson settled in Upolu, an island in Samoa, after two years sailing round the South Pacific. He was given a Samoan name and became a fierce critic of the interference of Germany, Britain and the U.S.A. in Samoan affairs - a stance that earned him Oscar Wilde's sneers, and brought him into conflict with the Colonial Office, who regarded him as a menace and even threatened him with expulsion from the island.

Joseph Farrell's pioneering study of Stevenson's twilight years stands apart from previous biographies by giving as much weight to the Samoa and the Samoans - their culture, their manners, their history - as to the life and work of the man himself. For it is only by examining the full complexity of Samoa and the political situation it faced as the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, that Stevenson's lasting and generous contribution to its cause can be appreciated.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848668829
Publisher:	Quercus Publishing
Publication date:	09/01/2017
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Joseph Farrell is Emeritus Professor at the University of Strathclyde. His books include a cultural history of Sicily and biographies of Dario Fo and Leonardo Sciascia. He is also a renowned translator from the Italian, whose translations include works by Leonardo Sciascia, Vincenzo Consolo, Dario Fo and Valerio Varesi. He lives in Glasgow.

Table of Contents

Foreword 13

Introduction: The Romance and the Dominion 19

Part I In the South Seas

Chapter 1 Another Sky 33

Chapter 2 A Most Unlikely Couple 46

Chapter 3 A Wise Folly 59

Chapter 4 Distant Glimpses of Samoa 76

Part II Samoa

Chapter 5 The Sailing Gods 91

Chapter 6 Missionaries and Traders 109

Chapter 7 In the Margins of A Footnote to History 125

Chapter 8 Civil and Uncivil Life in Samoa 148

Chapter 9 A Deeply Interesting Time 163

Chapter 10 Outbreak of War 184

Part III Home at Vailima

Chapter 11 A Real Domestic Man 197

Chapter 12 Residents and Visitors 218

Chapter 13 A Home for Angels 238

Chapter 14 Fanny: The Horror of Madness 260

Part IV The Writer at Work

Chapter 15 The Sense of Kinship: Scottish and Pacific Ballads 273

Chapter 16 A Lot Accomplished 291

Chapter 17 A Far Cry from Samoa to Scotland? 312

Part V Final Days

Chapter 18 Home is the Sailor 327

A Visit to Robert Louis Stevenson: A Letter S.R. Lynaght 338

Index 344

Editorial Reviews

A bracing amalgam of history, biography and travel . . . Farrell has done his compatriot proud.—Ian Thomson, Financial Times.

A sparkling account of the last years of Stevenson's life . . . An emeritus professor at the University of Strathclyde and translator of literary works from Italian, Farrell comes armed with perceptive, elegant prose and a revealing understanding of Stevenson's peculiarly Scottish frame of mind.—Literary Review

A very profound examination of Stevenson's Samoa in light of current and present ideologies.—Brian Morton, Glasgow Herald.

A warm and intelligent account of the novelist's life and work in his last years in the South Seas.—Allan Massie, Catholic Herald Books of the Year

Joseph Farrell's is the best book I have seen on Stevenson's years in Samoa, the most enviable of any writer's ever. Farrell is fair to both his sunburnt Bohemianism and his unremitting hard work.—James Buchan

Marvellously done, thanks to the lively fair-mindedness of Farrell's excellent prose. Vivid, scholarly, informative, but above all a really good read.—Liz Lochhead, Scots Makar 2011-16

Scholarly, engaging and deeply thoughtful, Joseph Farrell's account of Stevenson's last four years in Samoa has the feel of an instant classic in studies of the writer. The Navigator Islands had fascinated Stevenson for years, but when he went to live there in 1890, frail and famous, the realities of life in on the margins of his own culture, language and society changed him forever. Rarely can a place and a writer have had so much effect on each other: Joseph Farrell's brilliant study takes us further into this fascinating relationship than ever before.—Claire Harman, author of Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography

Stevenson in Samoa is very good indeed . . . It is full of interest and repays the attention it demands.—Allan Massie, Scotsman.

Stevenson in Samoa is very good indeed . . . It is full of interest and repays the attention it demands.—Scotsman.

A bracing amalgam of history, biography and travel . . . Farrell has done his compatriot proud.—Financial Times.

A sparkling account of the last years of Stevenson's life . . . An emeritus professor at the University of Strathclyde and translator of literary works from Italian, Farrell comes armed with perceptive, elegant prose and a revealing understanding of Stevenson's peculiarly Scottish frame of mind.—Literary Review

A very profound examination of Stevenson's Samoa in light of current and present ideologies.—Glasgow Herald.

A warm and intelligent account of the novelist's life and work in his last years in the South Seas.—Catholic Herald Books of the Year

By adeptly detailing colonial politics in which Stevenson intervened, Farrell takes us well beyond the image of the romantic exile in Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa.—Christine Bold, T.L.S.

By adeptly detailing colonial politics in which Stevenson intervened, Farrell takes us well beyond the image of the romantic exile in Robert Louise Stevenson in Samoa.—T.L.S.

Farrell provides a welcome service by offering us the fascinating story of Stevenson's last great roll with the dice.—Peter Carty, Spectator.

Farrell provides a welcome service by offering us the fascinating story of Stevenson's last great roll with the dice.—Spectator.

Joseph Farrell's is the best book I have seen on Stevenson's years in Samoa, the most enviable of any writer's ever. Farrell is fair to both his sunburnt Bohemianism and his unremitting hard work.

Marvellously done, thanks to the lively fair-mindedness of Farrell's excellent prose. Vivid, scholarly, informative, but above all a really good read.

Scholarly, engaging and deeply thoughtful, Joseph Farrell's account of Stevenson's last four years in Samoa has the feel of an instant classic in studies of the writer. The Navigator Islands had fascinated Stevenson for years, but when he went to live there in 1890, frail and famous, the realities of life in on the margins of his own culture, language and society changed him forever. Rarely can a place and a writer have had so much effect on each other: Joseph Farrell's brilliant study takes us further into this fascinating relationship than ever before.

From the Publisher