The Dynamiter TREDITION CLASSICS Robert Louis Stevenson Books
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The Dynamiter TREDITION CLASSICS Robert Louis Stevenson Books
Before I picked up this book, I had read only two works by Robert Louis Stevenson. One was _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_, which, like the vast majority of its readers, I was not able to read "innocently." This story has become so popular that virtually everyone knows "what's up" with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which takes away part of the thrill of reading it, though it does not diminish this immortal masterpiece in any way. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you are truly blessed and I envy you; please get a copy of the book immediately and read it before someone spoils the whole thing for you.) As a child, I had also read the short story "The Bottle Imp," in Spanish, in what was probably a simplified version. I thought it was, like Poe's "The Gold Bug," one of the most wonderful things ever written. Those two stories would have sufficed to make me want to be a writer. It is strange, then, that so many years have passed before I read Stevenson again. I still haven't read _Treasure Island_ or _Kidnapped_, but I plan to change that soon. Stevenson had a tremendous influence on two of my favorite authors: Jorge Luis Borges and G. K. Chesterton. Borges even included _New Arabian Nights_ (plus the short story "Markheim") in his "biblioteca personal," the list of the 100 most significant books he had read.The title of _New Arabian Nights_ (1882) is misleading. In a way, Stevenson was capitalizing on the tremendous success of the _One Thousand and One Nights_. The "Arabian" stories in Stevenson's collection take place in London, though this is a highly personal view of the English capital. Stevenson creates a haunting, perilous atmosphere, and as Borges points out, this depiction of London greatly influenced Chesterton (see _The Man Who Was Thursday_, for example; another story, by the way, that one should read before someone spoils it). Like Cervantes in _Don Quixote_, Stevenson pretends to retell stories that have been penned by an unnamed Arabian author. _New Arabian Nights_ consists of two story cycles ("The Suicide Club" and "The Rajah's Diamond", the actual "Arabian" tales) and four stories. All of these tales may be described as tales of "adventure" and/or "mystery." I will comment briefly on each story.
* The Suicide Club: this cycle includes the "Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts," the "Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk," and "The Adventure of the Hansom Cabs." The premise is fabulous: someone has created a club to aid those people who are sick and tired of life and wish to put an end to their own. Cards are drawn from a pack each night: one determines who will die, and another who will "assist" him. These stories are tightly related and unified by the character of Prince Florizel of Bohemia; they could almost be considered a novella. One of my favorite pieces in the collection.
* The Rajah's Diamond: a cycle that comprises the "Story of the Bandbox," the "Story of the Young Man in Holy Orders," the "Story of the House with the Green Blinds," and "The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective." As those in "The Suicide Club," these tales are connected, and even though each may stand alone, if the reader wants to see the plot developed he/she has to read them all. The story concerns a diamond that passes from one hand to another. The influence of Wilkie Collins is patent here. His novel _The Moonstone_ (according to T. S. Eliot "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels") appeared in 1868. Conan Doyle had not yet introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world. That would happen in 1887 with _A Study in Scarlet_.
* The Pavilion on the Links: the story of two misanthropes who meet by chance in a secluded pavilion they used to visit as young men. Things have changed, of course. One of them is now accompanied by a beautiful woman and an older man. Add in financial trouble and a "difference of opinion" with a group of Italians, and you have a great story.
* A Lodging for the Night: One of the most famous stories in the collection, it describes a night in the life of French poet Francis Villon (called François in real life, he is the author of the famous line "mais où sont les neiges d'antan?" i.e., "where are the snows of yesteryear?"). An excellent piece, I was slightly disappointed in it, surely because all the praise led me to expect something different.
* The Sire De Malétroit's Door: A man hides behind a door, which then will not open. I can't say more without spoiling the tale. This was by far my favorite story in the collection.
* Providence and the Guitar: A story of artists and the troubles they run into. It read as a light piece to me. This is, in my opinion, the weakest effort in _New Arabian Nights_, thought it still exhibits Stevenson's mastery of description and his keen observation.
Stevenson is often dismissed as a writer of entertainment. I will not deny that the main purpose of his writings seems to be to please, to interest, to entertain his reader. My question is, "So what's the problem?" We tend to forget that to entertain is not only a valid aim in literature, it should be one of its requirements. We seem to have fallen into the idolatry of the obscure, the complicated, the artsy, even the illegible. How many modern and especially post-modern novels can you name that are "classics" simply because they are a pain to get through? Nobody will point out that the emperor is not wearing any clothes. Not to mention novels that are valued not because of their artistic merit, but because of their politics. In an age such as ours, it is not surprising that the appreciation of Stevenson has decreased. Personally, I find this type of reading quite refreshing. It allows me to go back to a time when it was alright for an author to keep the reader in suspense, a time when self-indulgence and pretentiousness had not yet become the norm. Stevenson is a master storyteller, which is why in Samoa, where he spent the last years of his life, he was known as Tusitala, "Teller of Tales."
I plan to read all of Stevenson's short fiction, which consists of this book plus _The Merry Men_ (1887), _Island's Night Entertainment_ (1893), and a handful of uncollected stories, some of which appeared in the posthumous _Tales and Fantasies_ (1905). The Modern Library has published all of this material, plus _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ and the uncollected story "An Old Song," in one nice volume titled _The Complete Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson_. I will share my experience with these other books as I read them.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!
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The Dynamiter TREDITION CLASSICS Robert Louis Stevenson Books Reviews
This is not a review of the content of the book, rather I'd like to comment on the publishing quality. This book is an "instabook", which I assume to mean that it is printed after it is ordered. There doesn't seem to be any mention of this on the book description page on . The results of this "instabook" printing are as follows low quality paper cover and pages; sloppy cut on the exposed edges of the book; numerous typos - averaging 1 per 1.5 pages; misalignment of paragraphs sometimes cutting words in half. All this would be acceptable if the intent of this book and others like it was to deliver classic books at a very affordable price. But! for [the price] it is a complete RIPOFF!
There are so many poor adaptations of R.L. Stevenson's "Treasure Island" or "Kidnapped" that have diluted our idea of his natural born talent. Make not the same error, this man is a singular force that you want to meet via the written word. he probably was too much of a wild card to go on a trip to the Poconos with. But don't miss his short stories; odd and wonderful, often dealing with madness.
What an odd, wonderful book this is. Sometimes confusing but always absorbing, The Dynamiter (written by Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson) is neither a novel nor a collection of short stories, but rather a group of tales woven together with a very slender thread. The setting is London in the 1880's. Three bored, aimless, rather useless young men make an agreement among themselves that they will each take up the very next adventure that comes along. They go their separate ways and encounter various individuals who tell them fantastic tales - of vengeful Mormons in Utah ("Story of the Destroying Angel"), of voodoo terror in Cuba ("Story of the Fair Cuban"), of bomb-wielding anarchists in London ("Tale of the Explosive Bomb"), of an abandoned mansion where all sorts of mysterious people show up ("The Superfluous Mansion").
The tales are uniformly gripping, but none of them stand quite alone. Most, in fact, are put-ons, fantasies concocted by a small group of anti-English terrorists (they seem to be Irish, and refer to themselves as "patriots"), led by a man named Zero and a young woman who shows up in multiple exotic guises throughout the book. The mood is at times comic, terrifying, surreal. One of the themes, indeed, might be what is reality?
Aside from the fine writing of the Stevensons, I found The Dynamiter very interesting for two reasons, First, the theme of terrorism in our modern age of terrorism, it is easy to forget that the fanatic bomber is nothing new, that he goes back at least to Stevenson's time (the book was written in 1883 - it was apparently meant to reflect upon current events, and is dedicated to two courageous policemen, Cole and Cox). And second, it became obvious to me after reading just a little of The Dynamiter, that it was the model, in format and tone, for Arthur Machen's perverse, horrific masterpiece, The Three Impostors. If you are an admirer of that appalling classic, you will probably enjoy The Dynamiter. Fans of Sherlock Holmes might also like the book, set primarily in gas-lit London.
wish the book covers more stories but it's good for a treat as if one enters a different world.
it's a great book for kids. definitely will recommend it!
Good old classic.
I found these interlocking stories to hold my interest. Unlike most of the Stevenson works I'm familiar with it was set in his time period in England. There is intrigue and even some humor. It's not great literature but good enough to pass some time by with.
Arrived on time - but the print is too small and the book too wide, hence can't be read easily from line to line - one loses one's place. The "illustrations" are random and have nothing to do with the story.
Before I picked up this book, I had read only two works by Robert Louis Stevenson. One was _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_, which, like the vast majority of its readers, I was not able to read "innocently." This story has become so popular that virtually everyone knows "what's up" with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which takes away part of the thrill of reading it, though it does not diminish this immortal masterpiece in any way. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you are truly blessed and I envy you; please get a copy of the book immediately and read it before someone spoils the whole thing for you.) As a child, I had also read the short story "The Bottle Imp," in Spanish, in what was probably a simplified version. I thought it was, like Poe's "The Gold Bug," one of the most wonderful things ever written. Those two stories would have sufficed to make me want to be a writer. It is strange, then, that so many years have passed before I read Stevenson again. I still haven't read _Treasure Island_ or _Kidnapped_, but I plan to change that soon. Stevenson had a tremendous influence on two of my favorite authors Jorge Luis Borges and G. K. Chesterton. Borges even included _New Arabian Nights_ (plus the short story "Markheim") in his "biblioteca personal," the list of the 100 most significant books he had read.
The title of _New Arabian Nights_ (1882) is misleading. In a way, Stevenson was capitalizing on the tremendous success of the _One Thousand and One Nights_. The "Arabian" stories in Stevenson's collection take place in London, though this is a highly personal view of the English capital. Stevenson creates a haunting, perilous atmosphere, and as Borges points out, this depiction of London greatly influenced Chesterton (see _The Man Who Was Thursday_, for example; another story, by the way, that one should read before someone spoils it). Like Cervantes in _Don Quixote_, Stevenson pretends to retell stories that have been penned by an unnamed Arabian author. _New Arabian Nights_ consists of two story cycles ("The Suicide Club" and "The Rajah's Diamond", the actual "Arabian" tales) and four stories. All of these tales may be described as tales of "adventure" and/or "mystery." I will comment briefly on each story.
* The Suicide Club this cycle includes the "Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts," the "Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk," and "The Adventure of the Hansom Cabs." The premise is fabulous someone has created a club to aid those people who are sick and tired of life and wish to put an end to their own. Cards are drawn from a pack each night one determines who will die, and another who will "assist" him. These stories are tightly related and unified by the character of Prince Florizel of Bohemia; they could almost be considered a novella. One of my favorite pieces in the collection.
* The Rajah's Diamond a cycle that comprises the "Story of the Bandbox," the "Story of the Young Man in Holy Orders," the "Story of the House with the Green Blinds," and "The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective." As those in "The Suicide Club," these tales are connected, and even though each may stand alone, if the reader wants to see the plot developed he/she has to read them all. The story concerns a diamond that passes from one hand to another. The influence of Wilkie Collins is patent here. His novel _The Moonstone_ (according to T. S. Eliot "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels") appeared in 1868. Conan Doyle had not yet introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world. That would happen in 1887 with _A Study in Scarlet_.
* The Pavilion on the Links the story of two misanthropes who meet by chance in a secluded pavilion they used to visit as young men. Things have changed, of course. One of them is now accompanied by a beautiful woman and an older man. Add in financial trouble and a "difference of opinion" with a group of Italians, and you have a great story.
* A Lodging for the Night One of the most famous stories in the collection, it describes a night in the life of French poet Francis Villon (called François in real life, he is the author of the famous line "mais où sont les neiges d'antan?" i.e., "where are the snows of yesteryear?"). An excellent piece, I was slightly disappointed in it, surely because all the praise led me to expect something different.
* The Sire De Malétroit's Door A man hides behind a door, which then will not open. I can't say more without spoiling the tale. This was by far my favorite story in the collection.
* Providence and the Guitar A story of artists and the troubles they run into. It read as a light piece to me. This is, in my opinion, the weakest effort in _New Arabian Nights_, thought it still exhibits Stevenson's mastery of description and his keen observation.
Stevenson is often dismissed as a writer of entertainment. I will not deny that the main purpose of his writings seems to be to please, to interest, to entertain his reader. My question is, "So what's the problem?" We tend to forget that to entertain is not only a valid aim in literature, it should be one of its requirements. We seem to have fallen into the idolatry of the obscure, the complicated, the artsy, even the illegible. How many modern and especially post-modern novels can you name that are "classics" simply because they are a pain to get through? Nobody will point out that the emperor is not wearing any clothes. Not to mention novels that are valued not because of their artistic merit, but because of their politics. In an age such as ours, it is not surprising that the appreciation of Stevenson has decreased. Personally, I find this type of reading quite refreshing. It allows me to go back to a time when it was alright for an author to keep the reader in suspense, a time when self-indulgence and pretentiousness had not yet become the norm. Stevenson is a master storyteller, which is why in Samoa, where he spent the last years of his life, he was known as Tusitala, "Teller of Tales."
I plan to read all of Stevenson's short fiction, which consists of this book plus _The Merry Men_ (1887), _Island's Night Entertainment_ (1893), and a handful of uncollected stories, some of which appeared in the posthumous _Tales and Fantasies_ (1905). The Modern Library has published all of this material, plus _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ and the uncollected story "An Old Song," in one nice volume titled _The Complete Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson_. I will share my experience with these other books as I read them.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!
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