In The South Seas: xxxvii (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Rennie, Neil; Stevenson, Robert Louis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140434364 ISBN 13: 9780140434361

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1998

Synopsis

IN THE SOUTH SEAS records Stevenson's travels with his wife Fanny and their family in the Marquesas, the Paumotus and the Gilbert Islands during 1888-9. Originally drafted in journal form while Stevenson travelled, it was then ambitiously rewrittento describe the islands and islanders as well as Stevenson's own personal experiences. IN THE SOUTH SEAS was published posthumously in 1896. Its combination of personal anecdote and historical account, of autobiography and anthropology, of Stevenson and South Sea Islands, has a particular charm.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

'The first experience can never be repeated. The first love, the first sunrise, the first South Sea island, are memories apart ...'

In the South Seas records Stevenson's travels with his wife Fanny and their family in the Marquesas, the Paumotus and the Gilbert Islands during 1888-9. Originally drafted in journal form while Stevenson travelled, it was then ambitiously rewritten to describe the islands and islanders as well as Stevenson's own personal experiences. These revisions continued when Stevenson settled on the Samoan island where he died in 1894, and In the South Seas was published posthumously in 1896. Its combination of personal anecdote and historical account, of autobiography and anthropology, of Stevenson and South Sea islands, has a particular charm.

Neil Rennie, who provides in this Penguin Classics edition the first critically emended text, writes: 'In the South Seas, for all its imperfections, is a classic of Pacific travel, the work of the best British writer to see the South Seas ... Stevenson had travelled far from Treasure Island.'

About the Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) became a professional writer when he became afflicted with a severe respiratory illness in his early twenties. Many of his works are available in Penguin Classics, including' Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' and 'Weir of Hermiston'.
Neil Rennie is a Lecturer in English at UCL, and is currently completing a book about travel writing and the New World for OUP.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0140434364
• ISBN 13: 9780140434361
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336