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ESSAYS OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON


SELECTED AND EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY WILLIAM LYON
PHELPS M.A.(HARVARD) PH.D.(YALE)


PREFACE

The text of the following essays is taken from the Thistle Edition of
Stevenson's _Works_, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, in New
York. I have refrained from selecting any of Stevenson's formal essays
in literary criticism, and have chosen only those that, while ranking
among his masterpieces in style, reveal his personality, character,
opinions, philosophy, and faith. In the _Introduction_, I have
endeavoured to be as brief as possible, merely giving a sketch of his
life, and indicating some of the more notable sides of his literary
achievement; pointing out also the literary school to which these
Essays belong. A lengthy critical Introduction to a book of this kind
would be an impertinence to the general reader, and a nuisance to a
teacher