Robert Louis (originally Lewis)
Stevenson was born in November 1850 in
Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was an engineer, and his mother
was from a family of lawyers and ministers. Like many other parents
of their time, the Stevensons imparted to their son the Victorian
values of piety, industry, and practical success. Robert was somewhat
fearful of his strict, no-nonsense father, a fact that would later
be evident in the numerous antagonistic or spiritless father-son relationships
depicted in his novels. Robert was a solid student, obeying his
father’s wishes by enrolling in Edinburgh University’s engineering
department with the eventual aim of joining his father’s firm, which
specialized in the construction of deep-sea lighthouses. Stevenson
soon rebelled against this plan and reached a compromise with his
father by pursuing legal studies. He frequently passed his summer
vacations in France with his friends, who were mainly bohemians
and artists. At the age of twenty-five, Stevenson passed the bar,
but he knew he was not a lawyer at heart and never practiced. Around
that time, he published his first essay, a travel piece, and his
literary career began.
Stevenson’s dissatisfaction with his father’s practical
career advice was characteristic of his broader disillusionment
with the ideals of Victorian society. To Stevenson, it seemed that
the entire nation considered working hard its highest duty. However,
the young Stevenson frequently dreamed of escape from
engineering, from Scotland, and from Victorian responsibility in
general. Not surprisingly, many of his works demonstrate a sharp
tension between upstanding duty and reckless abandon. Perhaps the most
notable instance of this tension is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886),
in which these two opposing impulses are at war within one man,
eventually tearing him apart. A later, less famous work, The
Master of Ballantrae (1889), showcases
two Scottish brothers who represent duty and recklessness, and good
and evil. Treasure Island also features a conflict
between respectful gentlemen and carefree pirates. Perhaps because
of Stevenson’s commitment to both duty and art, his works never
clearly separate the opposing moral forces. The good and the bad
are always inextricably bound to each other. As we see in Treasure
Island, the dastardly pirate Long John Silver remarks how
similar he is to the novel’s upstanding young hero, Jim Hawkins.
The idea of escape was equally important in Stevenson’s
life and work. In 1876, on one of his visits
to France, Stevenson met an American woman named Fanny Van de Grift
Osbourne. At thirty-six, she was more than ten years older than
he, and, furthermore, she had also been previously married and had
two small children. In a most un-Victorian fashion, Stevenson fell
deeply in love with Osbourne. Two years later, he followed her as
she returned to California to finalize her divorce, a journey he
described in The Amateur Emigrant (1879).
Stevenson and Osbourne married in California and spent their honeymoon
at an abandoned silver mine.
Stevenson got along well with Osbourne’s children. It
was while drawing a map with her son Lloyd that Stevenson came up
with the idea of writing Treasure Island. The novel’s
focus on voyaging became even more important in Stevenson’s life
when his doctors advised him to seek a better climate for his health.
In 1888, Stevenson and his family set sail
for the South Seas, arriving in Samoa and taking up residence there
in 1889. When he died in 1894,
Stevenson was buried on top of Mount Vaea, an unconventional burial
site that symbolizes the spirit of moral nonconformity and independent thought
that he strove to convey in his works.
