Robert Louis Stevenson, Science and the Fin de Siecle
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In this fascinating book, Reid examines Robert Louis Stevenson's writings in the context of late-Victorian evolutionist thought, arguing that an interest in 'primitive' culture is at the heart of his work. She investigates a wide range of Stevenson's writing, including Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Treasure Island, offering a new way of understanding the relationship between his Scottish and South Seas work. Reid's close attention to Stevenson's engagement with anthropological and psychological debate also illuminates the intersections between literature and science at the fin de siecle, and includes previously unpublished material from the Stevenson archive at Yale. Reid's interpretation offers a new way of understanding the relationship between his Scottish and South Seas work. Her analysis of Stevenson's engagement with anthropological and psychological debate also illuminates the dynamic intersections between literature and science at the fin de siècle.
Introduction : Stevenson, evolution, and the 'primitive'1Pt. I'[O]ur civilised nerves still tingle with ... rude terrors and pleasures' : romance and evolutionary psychology131Stevenson and the art of fiction152Romance fiction : 'stories round the savage camp-fire'31Pt. II'Downward, downward lies your way' : degeneration and psychology553'There was less me and more not-me' : Stevenson and nervous morbidity594'Gothic gnomes' : degenerate fictions77Pt. IIIStevenson as anthropologist : culture, folklore, and language1075'The foreigner at home' : Stevenson and Scotland1116'[T]he clans disarmed, the chiefs deposed' : Stevenson in the South Seas138
