Page:Robert Louis Stevenson - a Bookman extra number 1913.djvu/134



are many ways of marking the milestones on the road of life; and certainly not the worst is by a register of the books which have added to its joy. The present writer was born too late to hail in succession the masterpieces of Dickens or Thackeray, or even of George Eliot—"Daniel Deronda," which fell in his way hot from the press, ministered no delight—but he came into the world in the very nick of time to enjoy, one by one, and to the full, the delicate fruits of Stevenson's genius. "Treasure Island," "Prince Otto," "Kidnapped," "The Master of Ballantrae," "Catriona," glorified the days in which they appeared with the reddest letters in the calendar. Of these, however, it is inadmissible to speak at this time; for the occasion of the present article is the publication of the first four volumes only of the new Pentland edition of Stevenson's collected work; the first volume opening with the "Inland Voyage," and the last coming to a close with the "New Arabian Nights". That is to say, the present issue comprises the journeyman work of the writer, already master of his tools, but still uncertain how best to employ them. And yet the last volume of these preliminary exercises, which contains the short stories of 1877-79, shows unmistakably in what direction the writer will exhibit his strength. I do not understand why the title of "The New Arabian Nights" was extended to "The Pavilion on the Links," "A Lodging for the Night," "The Sire de Malétroit's Door," and "Providence and the Guitar." It surely can belong only to the "Suicide Club" and the "Rajah's Diamond". The other tales have no link with these, nor are they in the same genre. And the blunder is unfortunate, as the greater stories are thus named of the less. The modernisation of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid