Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa / Joseph Farrell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Farrell, Joseph, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894.

Stevenson, Robert Louis.

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894--Travel.

Manners and customs.

Travel.

Samoa--Social life and customs.

Samoa.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

352 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus Publishing Ltd, 2017.

Summary:

Almost every adult and child is familiar with his Treasure Island, but few know that Robert Louis Stevenson lived out his last years on an equally remote island, which was squabbled over by colonial powers much as Captain Flint's treasure was contested by the mongrel crew of the Hispaniola. In 1890 Stevenson settled in Upolu, an island in Samoa, after two years sailing round the South Pacific. He was given a Samoan name and became a fierce critic of the interference of Germany, Britain and the U.S.A. in Samoan affairs - a stance that earned him Oscar Wilde's sneers, and brought him into conflict with the Colonial Office, who regarded him as a menace and even threatened him with expulsion from the island. Joseph Farrell's pioneering study of Stevenson's twilight years stands apart from previous biographies by giving as much weight to the Samoa and the Samoans - their culture, their manners, their history - as to the life and work of the man himself. For it is only by examining the full complexity of Samoa and the political situation it faced as the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, that Stevenson's lasting and generous contribution to its cause can be appreciated.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780857057617

0857057618

9780857059956

0857059955

OCLC:

973383755