NOTES
This essay first appeared in Longman's Magazine for November 1882, Vol. I, pp. 69-79. Five years later it was published in the volume Memories and Portraits (1887), followed by an article called A Humble Remonstrance, which should really be read in connection with this essay, as it is a continuation of the same line of thought. In the eternal conflict between Romanticism and Realism, Stevenson was heart and soul with the former, and fortunately he lived long enough to see the practical effects of his own precepts and influence. When he began to write, Realism in fiction seemed to have absolute control; when he died, a tremendous reaction in favor of the historical romance had already set in, that reached its climax with the death of the century. Stevenson's share in this Romantic revival was greater than that of any other English writer, and as an English review remarked, if it had not been for him most of the new authors would have been Howells and James young men.
This paper was written at Davos in the winter of 1881-2, and in February, writing to Henley, the author said, "I have just finished a paper, 'A Gossip on Romance,' in which I have tried to do, very popularly, about one-half of the matter you wanted me to try. In a way, I have found an answer to the question. But the subject was hardly fit for so chatty a paper, and it is all loose ends. If ever I do my book on the Art of Literature, I shall gather them together and be clear." (Letters, I, 269). On Dec. 8, 1884—the same month in which A Humble Remonstrance was printed, Stevenson wrote an interesting letter to Henry James, whose views on the art of fiction were naturally contrary to those of his friend. See Letters, I, 402.
[Note 1: Like a pig for truffles. See the Epilogue to Browning's Pacchiarotto etc., Stanza XVIII:—"Your product is—truffles, you hunt with a pig!">[
[Note 2: The Malabar coast. A part of India.]
[Note 3: Jacobite. After James II was driven from the throne in 1688, his supporters and those of his descendants were called Jacobites. Jacobus is the Latin for James.]
[Note 4: John Rann or Jerry Abershaw. John Rann I cannot find. Louis Jeremiah (or Jerry) Abershaw was a highway robber, who infested the roads near London; he was hung in 1795, when scarcely over twenty-one years old.]
[Note 5: "Great North road." The road that runs on the east of England up to Edinburgh. Stevenson yielded to the charm that these words had for him, for he began a romance with the title, The Great North Road, which however, he never finished. It was published as a fragment in The Illustrated London News, in 1895.]
[Note 6: What will he Do with It? One of Bulwer-Lytton's novels, published in 1858.]
[Note 7: Since traced by many obliging correspondents to the gallery of Charles Kingsley.]
[Note 8: Conduct is three parts of life. In Literature and Dogma (1873) Matthew Arnold asserted with great emphasis, that conduct was three-fourths of life.]
[Note 9: The sight of a pleasant arbour. Possibly a reminiscence of the arbour in Pilgrim's Progress, where Christian fell asleep, and lost his roll. "Now about the midway to the top of the hill was a pleasant arbour.">[
[Note 10: "Miching mallecho." Hamlet's description of the meaning of the Dumb Show in the play-scene, Act III, Sc. 2. "Hidden treachery"—see any annotated edition of Hamlet.]
[Note 11: Burford Bridge … Keats … Endymion … Nelson … Emma … the old Hawes Inn at the Queen's Ferry. Burford Bridge is close to Dorking in Surrey, England: in the old inn, Keats wrote a part of his poem Endymion (published 1818). The room where he composed is still on exhibition. Two letters by Keats, which are exceedingly important to the student of his art as a poet, were written from Burford Bridge in November 1817. See Colvin's edition of Keats's Letters, pp. 40-46…. "Emma" is Lady Hamilton, whom Admiral Nelson loved…. Queen's Ferry (properly Queensferry) is on the Firth of Forth, Scotland. See a few lines below in the text, where Stevenson gives the reference to the opening pages of Scott's novel the Antiquary, which begins in the old inn at this place. See also page 105 of the text, and Stevenson's foot note, where he declares that he did make use of Queensferry in his novel Kidnapped (1886)(Chapter XXVI).]
[Note 12: Since the above was written I have tried to launch the boat with my own hands in Kidnapped. Some day, perhaps, I may try a rattle at the shutters.]
[Note 13: Crusoe … Achilles … Ulysses … Christian. When Robinson Crusoe saw the footprint on the sand, and realised he was not alone…. To a reader of to-day the great hero Achilles seems to be all bluster and selfish childishness; the true gentleman of the Iliad is Hector…. When Ulysses returned home in the Odyssey, he bent with ease the bow that had proved too much for all the suitors of his lonely and faithful wife Penelope…. Christian "had not run far from his own door when his wife and children, perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the man put his fingers in his ears and ran on crying, 'Life! Life! eternal Life!'"—Pilgrim's Progress.]
[Note 14: ]. The Greek heavy-weight in Homer's Iliad.
[Note 15: English people of the present day. This was absolutely true in 1882. But in 1892 a complete revolution in taste had set in, and many of the most hardened realists were forced to write wild romances, or lose their grip on the public. At this time, Stevenson naturally had no idea how powerfully his as yet unwritten romances were to affect the literary market.]
[Note 16: Mr. Trollope's … chronicling small beer … Rawdon Crawley's blow. Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) wrote an immense number of mildly entertaining novels concerned with the lives and ambitions of English clergymen and their satellites. His best-known book is probably Barchester Towers (1857)…. Chronicling small beer is the "lame and impotent conclusion" with which Iago finishes his poem (Othello, Act II, Sc. I)…. Rawdon Crawley's blow refers to the most memorable scene in Thackeray's great novel, Vanity Fair (1847-8), where Rawdon Crawley, the husband of Becky Sharp, strikes Lord Steyne in the face (Chap. LIII). After writing this powerful scene, Thackeray was in a state of tremendous excitement, and slapping his knee, said, "That's Genius!">[
[Note 17: The end of Esmond … pure Dumas. Thackeray's romance Henry Esmond (1852) is regarded by many critics as the greatest work of fiction in the English language; Stevenson here calls it "the best of all his books." The scene Stevenson refers to is where Henry is finally cured of his love for Beatrix, and theatrically breaks his sword in the presence of the royal admirer (Book III, Chap. 13). Alexander Dumas (1803-1370), author of Monte Cristo and Les Trois Mousquetaires. Stevenson playfully calls him "the great, unblushing French thief"; all he means is that Dumas never hesitated to appropriate material wherever he found it, and work it into his romances.]
[Note 18: The living fame of Robinson Crusoe with the discredit of
Clarissa Harlowe. A strong contrast between the romance of incident
and the analytical novel. For remarks on Clarissa, see our Note 9 of
Chapter IV above.]
[Note 19: Byronism. About the time Lord Byron was publishing Childe Harold (1812-1818) a tremendous wave of romantic melancholy swept over all the countries of Europe. Innumerable poems and romances dealing with mysteriously-sad heroes were written in imitation of Byron; and young authors wore low, rolling collars, and tried to look depressed. See Gautier's Histoire du Romantisme. Now the death of Lovelace (in a duel) in Richardson's Clarissa, was pitched in exactly the Byronic key, though at that time Byron had not been born…. The Elizabethans were of course thoroughly romantic.]
[Note 20: Faria…Dantès. Characters in Dumas's Monte Cristo (1841-5).]
[Note 21: Lucy and Richard Feveril. Usually spelled "Feverel." Stevenson strangely enough, was always a bad speller. The reference here is to one of Stevenson's favorite novels The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859) by George Meredith. Stevenson's idolatrous praise of this particular scene in the novel is curious, for no greater contrast in English literary style can be found than that between Meredith's and his own. For another reference by Stevenson to the older novelist, see our Note 47 of Chapter IV above.]
[Note 22: Robinson Crusoe is as realistic as it is romantic. Therein lies precisely the charm of this book for boyish minds; the details are given with such candour that it seems as if they must all be true. At heart, Defoe was an intense realist, as well as the first English novelist.]
[Note 23: The arrival of Haydn. For a note on George Sand's novel Consuelo see Note 9 of Chapter IV above.]
[Note 24: A joy for ever. The first line of Keats's poem Endymion is "A thing of beauty is a joy forever.">[
[Note 25: The Sailor's Sweetheart. Mr. W. Clark Russell, born in New York in 1844, has written many popular tales of the sea. His first success was The Wreck of the Grosvenor (1876); The Sailor's Sweetheart, more properly, A Sailor's Sweetheart, was published in 1877.]
[Note 26: Swiss Family Robinson. A German story, Der schweizerische Robinson (1812) by J.D. Wyss (1743-1818). This story is not so popular as it used to be.]
[Note 27: Verne's Mysterious Island. Jules Verne, who died at Amiens, France, in 1904, wrote an immense number of romances, which, translated into many languages, have delighted young readers all over the world. The Mysterious Island is a sequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.]
[Note 28: Eugène de Rastignac. A character in Balzac's novel, Père
Goriot.]
[Note 29: The Lady of the Lake. This poem, published in 1810, is as Stevenson implies, not so much a poem as a rattling good story told in rime.]
[Note 30: The Pirate. A novel by Scott, published in 1821. It was the cause of Cooper's writing The Pilot. See Cooper's preface to the latter novel.]
[Note 31: Guy Mannering. Also by Scott. Published 1815.]
[Note 32: Miss Braddon's idea. Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Maxwell), born in 1837, published her first novel, The Trail of the Serpent, in 1860. She has written a large number of sensational works of fiction, very popular with an uncritical class of readers. Perhaps her best-known book is Lady Audley's Secret (1862). It would be well for the student to refer to the scenes in Guy Mannering which Stevenson calls the "Four strong notes.">[
[Note 33: Mrs. Todgers's idea of a wooden leg. Mrs. Todgers is a character in Dickens's novel, Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-4).]
[Note 34: Elspeth of the Craigburnfoot. A character in the Antiquary (1816).]