alive."

It is quite possible that the verses in this little volume may in the
coming years appeal to more human beings than all the remainder of
Stevenson's work. He and his American contemporary, Eugene Field
(1850-1895), had the peculiar genius to delight children with a type
of verse in which only a very few poets have excelled.

Boys and young men love Stevenson best for his short stories and
romances. After a careful study of Poe and Hawthorne, the American
short story masters, Stevenson made the English impressionistic short
story a more artistic creation. Some of the best of his short stories
are _Will o' the Mill_ (1878), _The Sire de Maletroit's Door_ (1878),
and _Markheim_ (1885). His best-known single production, _The Strange
Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_, is really a short story that
presents a remarkable psychological study of dual personality.

The short stories served as an apprenticeship for the longer romances,
of which _Treasure Island_ is the best constructed and the most
interesting. Among a number of other romances, the four which deal
with eighteenth-century Scottish history are the best: _Kidnapped_
(1886), _The Master of Ballantrae_ (1889), _David Balfour_
(_Catriona_, 1893), and the unfinished _Weir of Hermiston_, published
two years after his death.

[Illustration: EDINBURGH MEMORIAL OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. _By
Augustus St. Candeus._]

General Characteristics.--Unlike the majority of the Victorian
writers of fiction, Stevenson preferred the field of romance and
adventure. It is natural to compare him with Scott, who showed a far
wider range, both in subject matter and in the portrayal of human
beings. Stevenson, however, surpassed Scott in swift delineation of
incident, in pictorial vividness, and in literary form. Scott dashed
off some of his long romances in six weeks; while Stevenson said that
his printer's copy was sometimes the result of ten times that amount
of writing. The year before he died, he spent three weeks in writing
twenty-four pages.

Stevenson's romances are remarkable for artistic style, clearness of
visual image, and boyish love of adventure. He made little attempt to
portray more than the masculine half of the human race. His simple
verses possess rare power to charm children. The most evident quality
of all his prose is its artistic finish.

GEORGE MEREDITH, 1828-1909

[Illustration: GEORGE MEREDITH. _From the painting by G.F. Watts,
National Portrait Gal