Page:Robert Louis Stevenson - a Bookman extra number 1913.djvu/221

NOTES The appearance of "The Pavilion on the Links" marked a turning-point in Stevenson's literary career. "He stole quietly into the world of fame," Justin M'Carthy writes in his "History of Our Own Times. "Most of us heard of him for the first time, a great many years ago, when a remarkable story, a short story, appeared in the Cornhill Magazine, called 'The Pavilion on the Links,' signed with the initials R. L. S.' None of us then had the least idea as to the identity of the writer of the story, but some of us, at all events, felt satisfied that a new and fresh power had arisen in English literature." And in his "Stevensoniana," that invaluable storehouse of all that concerned Stevenson, Mr. J. A. Hammerton summarises and partly reprints the essay in which Sir A. Conan Doyle said, in 1890, that The Pavilion on the Links' marks the high-water mark of his genius, and is enough in itself, without another line, to give a man a permanent place among the great story-tellers of the race."

Since "Kidnapped" was first published, in 1886, edition after edition has had to be printed to meet the unending demand for the story of David Balfour's adventures and his exploits in the company of the doughty Alan Breck, one of the noblest soldiers of fortune that has ever flashed through the pages of a book. In the opinion of the author "Kidnapped" was his best, indeed his only good story, and the one he liked best himself, a judgment which is to some extent confirmed by so acute a critic as Mr. Henry James, who said that it represented the best work of Stevenson up to 1887, averring that "the episode of the quarrel of the two men on the mountain-side is a real stroke of genius and has the very logic and rhythm of life." In a copy of the book that he presented to Dr. E. L. Trudeau, at Lake Saranac, Stevenson wrote:

For the new Illustrated Edition of "Kidnapped," which they are issuing this autumn, Messrs. Cassell have secured the services of the well-known Scottish artist,, one of whose eight brilliant colour pictures for it we reproduce in this Number.

We are indebted also to Messrs. Seeley, Service and Co.